


All in Due Time

by DC_bookfanatic



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-07-07 10:43:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 35,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15906681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DC_bookfanatic/pseuds/DC_bookfanatic
Summary: 5 times Felicity tried to tell Oliver she was pregnant and the one time she succeeds.





	1. At the Office

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! This is my first posting on Archive of our own! So if anyone has any tips on posting or just helpful things around the website, that would be wonderful! It is also my first Arrow fic! Oliver and Felicity might be a little OOC but I did that for the purpose of the story. 
> 
> Also things may be different from the show but only minor things like William doesn't exsist, Sara never left team arrow, Felicity and Oliver got married after she healed from her injury....Things like that. You should be able to pick up on them! Thanks so much and Happy Reading!
> 
> Disclaimer: Not mine
> 
> Summary: Felicity finds out she's having a baby and rushes to tell Oliver. Things do not go as planned (or not planned).

Chapter 1: At the Office

With shaking hands, Felicity slowly sank down into her second favorite spiny chair (her first was located in the foundry) behind her desk at Queen Incorporated. She glanced through the glass walls to where her EA's desk sat and was thankful that she had waited to take the test during lunch while Garry was out.

When she first suspected that she might be pregnant she sat on the couch in the living room that connected to her and Oliver's bedroom for an hour contemplating that if she was pregnant at least the universe was being kind to them for once because no one was actively trying to kill Oliver (or anyone from team Arrow) meaning it was about as peaceful as their lives got. Then she spent another hour thinking about how she hoped she hadn't jinxed it and about how in the world she was going to convince Oliver that they could protect a baby even with their night jobs

When she finally did get up the nerve to buy a pregnancy test she was late for a meeting and had to stash all five of them, nobody could say she wasn't through, in her purse. It took her another two days to actually take the tests, half of her hoping Oliver would find them, so she didn't have to do it alone and half of her relieved that he didn't.

And that's why she sat in her (second) favorite spiny chair, her face pale and heart beating so fast that she thought it might burst from her chest, even if she knew that was physically impossible because all five of her tests told her in some form or fashion that she was pregnant.

Once she managed to shake herself out of the paralyzing shock she decided coffee was exactly what she needed at the moment to help her process the not unwelcome but very unexpected life changer.

She was halfway through making her self a huge pot of the coffee Oliver gets her (she's fairly certain it costs more than some people's monthly salary, but it tastes like heaven, so she ignores that fact) when she realizes that the exceptional tasting coffee also has exceptional amounts of caffeine.

Pregnant people couldn't have caffeine, could they? She remembered that Lyla had avoided it when she was pregnant. But she had had coffee yesterday morning and when was the last time she drank wine!? And there were probably hundreds of other rules she didn't know about and were probably breaking right now, well maybe not right now but soon, or maybe she already had. She hadn't (knowingly) been a mother for 10 minutes and she was already failing horribly.

Felicity barely made it to her own personal bathroom before she was ridding herself of the half-eaten breakfast she had managed to stomach that morning because she had had what she now knew was morning sickness…because she was pregnant and there would be a baby to take care of in approximately 8ish or so months. A totally helpless little person who relied fully on her to keep it alive. She may have totally rocked growing fungus for biology but let's be real that was nothing compared to taking care of a child!

She dove for the toilet for a second round.

Once she didn't feel like upchucking stomach bile, she took a fortifying breath and picked herself up from the cold tile, taking her toothbrush that she kept there for emergencies and brushed her teeth. Bracing her arms on the marble counter, she looked at her pale reflection and let out a choked sound that was part laugh and part happy sob.

"We're having a baby," Felicity whispered incredulously.

What she had only ever experienced in TV shows and vlogs on YouTube was becoming a reality except her life was far less white picket fence and a lot more 'So this weeks' bad guy is a crazy demonic psychopath probably connected to someone from Oliver's past. Perfectly normal, Oh and I ordered some new assault guns. They were half-off!'

Not that she didn't want a baby. Sure, her and Oliver had talked about having children someday but she was pretty sure that both of them thought 'someday' would be a very long, far off 'someday'. After the city was safe enough for Oliver to hang up his hood (who were they kidding? Star City would never be safe enough for the Arrow to leave). How was a newborn going to fit into their crazy lives? And Oliver. She had to tell him…

How was she going to tell Oliver?

Her face lost the color she had regained, "Oh, God! What am I going to tell Oliver?"

She dove for the toilet for a third round.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

The Mayor's offices were always busy no matter what time of the day you dropped in, even if it was midnight, you were sure to find someone hard at work going through countless letters, emails and documents that needed attention, so it was no surprise when Felicity walked into the impressive marble building that she was greeted with the organized chaos that their lives seemed to thrive on.

There were people everywhere, going in and out of meetings, briskly walking across the lobby with stacks of paper, lawyers with briefcases all working to help Oliver try to make the city a better place for the citizens of Star City.

"Mrs. Queen!" Holly, the receptionist looked up from her desk in the middle of the room.

When Felicity first met her, she wondered if she had stepped out of a movie with her grey hair piled on top of her head and her glasses around her neck connected with a gold chain. Holly was perfect, not only did she look the part, but she handled every visitor, nut job or no, with a firm kindness (and possibly a cookie).

"Mayor Queen didn't say you were stopping by."

She gave her a smile, "I didn't know myself until this afternoon. Do you know if he's out of his meeting yet?"

"I saw him head back to his office a few minutes ago. I think he was about to get lunch," The elder lady looked at her with concern, "Is everything all right, dear? You look a little pale."

Felicity's eyes went wide before she stammered "Ha Ha Ha… I'm not pale, it must be the lighting in here or maybe I'm not getting enough sun. Or maybe I have some weird disease that's caused by a deficiency in Vitamin D? I hope not because I wouldn't want something to happen to the ba-" She cut herself off and tried to cover frantically by squeaking out, "the beach trip."

'Nice save, Queen' she thought miserably, biting her lip, hoping that Holly would ignore the obvious slip-up.

She wasn't even five minutes in and she had managed to almost let slip the biggest news she had ever had to her husband's secretary! She had to tell Oliver before she accidentally told a reporter and all of Star City knew before he did. That would be a disaster and just her luck.

Holly looked at her with equal amounts of skepticism and amusement, "Whatever you say. Now, how about a cookie?"

"Yes!" The blonde managed not to shout.

She wasn't feeling nauseous, in fact, she was quite hungry, and she was too smart to pass the opportunity to get something in her stomach. Besides, if there ever was a time to splurge on chocolate bliss, it had to be now.

Armed with a cookie in her hand and one in her mouth she decided she had better leave before she took them all or before she started talking again. She didn't want to take any more chances.

As she walked through the familiar marble hallways she thought she could feel people's eyes on her and briefly wondered if everyone could suddenly read her mind but then she reasoned with herself that that wasn't very logical but then again, they were in Star City and they have had the occasional Central City visitor. She hoped not, Barry could keep his Meta-humans; the team had enough crazies who were without powers to deal with.

But seeing as how no one was freaking out or shouting to the world that she was pregnant or anything weird like that she doubted that they had an escaped Central City psycho meta on their hands.

When she finally got to Oliver's office and the big double doors that were labeled 'Mayor Oliver Queen' which had never seemed more foreboding (to her at least; she had seen more than a few interns and even some of the younger lawyers and deputy mayors run out of his office with a petrified look plastered on their face. She assumed that Oliver had gotten frustrated and used his arrow-y voice) she felt like it had been an eternity since she found out she was pregnant but in reality, it had only been a few hours.

Taking a deep breath, Felicity gave herself a quick pep talk and pushed open the door.

Oliver was in deep conversation with two of his deputy mayors she vaguely remembered meeting, but she had slept since then and no offense to Bob and Gorge over there, but she had way more important things to remember therefore she had not stored them into the folder in her brain marked vital information.

Oliver's eyes flicked over to where she was standing, his muscles tense but upon confirming it was her, he relaxed. She gave him a small smile, trying not to show her nerves and she must have somewhat succeeded because he gave her a smile in return and shifted his focus back onto whatever the two men were discussing.

While she was slightly disappointed that she would have to wait in agony for a few more minutes she put the time to good use and tried to come up with convincing arguments she could present to Oliver about why a baby would be a good idea and how to break the news to him.

Should she state her case first and then spring the news on him or should she just blurt 'I'm pregnant' and play it from ear?

The more and more she thought about it the more and more she started to think that she had rushed into this way too soon and that maybe she should have researched something-anything-about having a baby and while she was at it, maybe she could have researched an option where she didn't have to tell Oliver in person.

Or maybe she could wait like, 5ish months before she told him? By then, she should be as comfortable as she was going get at the prospect of being a mother.

Felicity was brought out of her thoughts by Oliver calling her name over and over again.

"Wh- Yeah, Yes!" She jumped and clutched the straps of her purse.

Why was she here again?-Oh yeah, I need to tell Oliver I'm pregnant.

"Felicity, are you okay?" Oliver wore a concerned expression and grabbed her shoulders gently.

She blinked owlishly a few times, nodding numbly, "Yup, I'm fine. What would make you ask me a question like that?"

He raised an eyebrow, "I don't know? Maybe the fact that I've been calling your name for about a minute and you weren't responding or that you didn't tell me you were stopping by which is totally fine, but you normally tell me if you are. Besides, you have that crinkle between your eyes."

Felicity looked around his large office and noticed that they were alone. Huh, when did that happen?

"They left a few minutes ago. They both spoke to you, but you seemed oblivious."

It was like he could read her thoughts. Maybe there was something to her Meta-human theory after all.

"Oops?" She offered sheepishly, hoping that he would just drop it so maybe she could ease him into the terrifying concept of Star City's friendly neighborhood crime-fighting, drug-busting vigilantes were going to become parents.

"What's wrong, Honey?" Oliver asked softly, wrapping his arms loosely around her waist.

"Can't a wife come to surprise her hard-working husband?"

He gave her a look, "I know what you're trying to do. You're deflecting but you aren't getting away with it that easily."

A knock on the door saved her from answering and she mentally thanked whoever it was. Oliver, however, didn't look like he was moving until he got an answer.

"Aren't you going to get that?"

His dark eyes bore into hers with a knowing look that made her more nervous than she already was, "Don't think this lets you off the hook. I know something's weighing on you."

Oliver moved behind his desk and sat down, "Come in."

Katy, the Chief Communications Officer for the Mayor's Offices came in with a stack of manila folders that she could barely see over, "I have an insane amount press releases for you to look over about the new precinct in the Glades and the upgrade to the city budgets."

She sat her load down with a thud right in front of Oliver, completely obscuring him from view, "Wow, Katy. That's a lot of press releases."

She waved him off, "This is nothing. You should have seen the stack of folders I had during the Sabastian Blood disaster."

Katy glanced around the room, her eyes landing on Felicity who was standing off to the side, fidgeting with the strap on her handbag.

"Mrs. Queen," She raised an eyebrow and gave a small smile, "I didn't know you were here."

Felicity shrugged, "I was fed up with the board trying to convince me to drop the bid on Kord Industries. It might be a little bit of a risk, but I think it will pay off, however, some people don't like taking risks. Especially when money's involved."

Katy chuckled, "I've come to realize that most men who work in suits can be difficult," She glanced meaningfully towards Oliver, "but I'm sure you know all about that."

Felicity grinned at Oliver's exasperated frown, "Yep, I think Oliver takes the cake though."

Oliver's features morphed from exasperated to betrayal, "I wasn't that bad."

Felicity raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms, "Uh-huh. Who had to endure the trademark Oliver Queen broodiness and tardiness for a year and was given little to no credit? And now, who has to deal with juggling both of our schedules and taking your calls when you're busy at the house?"

Katy and Oliver looked at her strangely and Felicity's ears got a little pink at the realization she had put more heat into it than she had intended.

She was blaming pregnancy hormones.

Thankfully neither one of them mentioned it and there was an awkward silence before Katy excused herself leaving Oliver and Felicity alone again.

Oliver studied her, and Felicity did her best not to fidget. She knew he knew something was up, but she didn't think that even he would be able to guess what she had to tell him. It was way too out of the blue. As the seconds ticked by she found herself trying to build some much-needed confidence when Oliver broke the silence.

"Alright, Katy's gone. What's the matter?" He came back over to Felicity and ran his hand down her cheek.

Felicity sighed, "Why do you think something's the matter."

Oliver raised an eyebrow, "I know you, Felicity and you've been acting very strange ever since you walked into my office."

"What if I just wanted to have lunch with you?"

"I would love for you to have lunch with me but that doesn't explain why you're so…jumpy."

Felicity bit her lip and tried to ignore Oliver's concerned gaze. She didn't know why she was so nervous. Sure, this was unexpected, and they had never really talked about starting a family, but she'd seen the way Oliver lit up when he was around kids so surely he would be happy about a child of his own even if he moonlighted as the Green Arrow.

She took a deep breath, "Oliver, hon. I have something I need to tell you and I'm not sure how you're going to take it."

"Did you find something on Banks? Has he kidnapped another child?"

The blonde opened her mouth dumbfounded then closed it again. That was the last thing she had expected Oliver to say. She hadn't even thought about the newest serial child kidnapper since last night when she set up her search parameters.

Felicity felt her stomach sink. Now that she had been reminded of him she felt even more pressure to nab Banks since she was carrying a child of her own.

Oliver must have sensed her sudden panic because he grabbed her by the elbows and had an extremely worried look on his face, "Felicity, are you okay? What happened?"

"N-nothing happened. Bank's still a no-show," She managed to stutter out.

"Your pale face says otherwise."

It was now or never. Felicity closed her eyes briefly and took a breath, "I came down here to tell you something, sweetheart and I'm just trying to tell you, but you aren't..."

Oliver raised his eyebrows in disbelief and irritation, "What has Roy done now?"

Felicity felt like stomping her healed foot like a two-year-old who wasn't getting her way. This wasn't going at all the way she planned, "Roy hasn't done anything, at least anything that I'm aware of. Why would you think that?"

Oliver looked at her suspiciously, "You only call me sweetheart when you want something or when Roy's in trouble. The last time that happened I had to do some very sketchy negotiation with a very big man that spoke at least 10 different languages in the same sentence and had tattoos all over his face and arms to get Roy out of a questionable looking dog pound."

"So, if it isn't that, then what do you want. If you want a new tablet you know you don't have to ask me."

The blonde grimaced, "No, I don't want a new tablet," She was about to just blurt out her news when, of course, that frosted-glass door opened, and a caterer came in with what she assumed was Oliver's lunch.

Felicity didn't know whether to scream or to cry, she felt like doing both but that was definitely not how she wanted Oliver to find out about the baby.

"I ordered sushi. Would you like some?" Oliver opened the container and started dishing out sushi rolls onto two plates.

Well, she might have wanted some but as soon as she caught a whiff of the raw fish and wasabi all she wanted to do was run to the nearest bathroom.

"No, thanks," She managed to get out, her hand pressed tightly against her mid-section.

Oliver turned around from his place at the desk, "Are you okay Felicity? You look a little green."

Deciding she had better get out of there before she lost it all over the marble floor, Felicity muttered, "Never mind," and left.

Her heels clicked down the hallway, as she was taking deep breaths and trying to keep the tears at bay, hoping no one would stop her. She managed to make it to the lobby when she heard those familiar footsteps running after her.

"Felicity!" Oliver had caught up to her and took her elbow, staring into her eyes worriedly, "What on earth? Honey, I didn't mean to make you upset. Whatever it is, whatever you want to buy. It's alright."

He smiled at her encouragingly, "Just use your judgment."

"My-my judgment!" Felicity spluttered out in shock between tears. There were people milling about but she honestly didn't care, unless reporters started to show up but for the moment she didn't see didn't any cameras.

"Oliver," She sniffed, "I came down here during my lunch to tell you something very important, but you won't give me a chance."

He thumbed some of her tears away, "I'm sorry. I'm listening now. Hold on," Oliver looked around the large room that despite their scene, was quite full and very noisy.

He took a deep breath and held up a hand, "Everyone! Be quiet, please. My wife came to tell me something very important so please calm down for just a moment."

Felicity's eyes widened and she looked around to see about 50 people staring at them. What had happened to the Oliver she knew? The one who was super private and so attuned to her feelings?

She wasn't about to tell him here with everyone listening. This whole thing was a terrible idea. She needed to go home, regroup and come up with some better way to tell Oliver he would be a dad in a matter of months.

Now, she had to come up with a clever excuse to get out of there.

"Do you know what time it is?"

Yeah, Felicity! Killing it with those top-notch excuses. This ranked right up there with 'I ran out of sports bottles'.

Now everyone was looking at her like she was crazy. She didn't blame them. She was starting to consider that maybe she really was crazy and that's why all of this was happening.

Because, seriously? What was so complicated about telling your significant other that you were expecting? Everything, apparently.

"Felicity, dear. You didn't come all the way to city hall for the time when you can just look at your phone or your tablet or a computer or a clock or your watch. Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

Oliver placed the back of his hand on her forehead.

She swiped away her tears and put on her most convincing smile, "I've got a meeting. What time is it?"

Someone from the crowd called out, "2:30."

This time Felicity wasn't trying to make up an excuse, she really did have a meeting with her board and if she didn't leave then, she was going to be late.

"Crap! I have got to go," She kissed Oliver on the jaw, "You know how the board gets when they have to wait."

Felicity hurried down the lobby, feeling all the eyes following her, especially Oliver's bewildered stare and she knew that she had to think of some way to tell him and fast because he was not going to let this go.


	2. The Exploding Cake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity enlists Thea's help to give Oliver the news of impending parenthood. Her plans, however, are ruined by Roy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh! You guys are so sweet with all your kind words and leaving all the kudos! You have no idea how much it means to me! I'm so glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you enjoy this one as well.
> 
> As the story progresses you may think that Oliver should figure out (or at least suspect something) Felicity's news and later on I might write a scene of what Oliver thinks of his wife's behavoir but I really wanted five chapters of him not knowing about the baby so I'm making him oblivious on purpose...besides, it's kind of funny. I do, however, realise if something like this happened in the show, Oliver would bug Felicity until she told him the truth.
> 
> Anyways enough of that! I will let you read away!
> 
> Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own anything.

“Earth to Felicity!” 

Thea’s voice reverberated off the steel walls of the Bunker as she waved her hand in front of the blonde’s blank face. Pursing her lips, Thea put her hands on her hips and leaned over to stare into Felicity’s glassy eyes.

“Felicity! You in there?” She snapped her fingers in front of Felicity’s vision. 

Felicity jumped causing her elbow to slip of the arm rest, “Yea- What!?”

Thea straitened and crossed her arms, “Are you okay? I’ve been calling your name for five minutes.”

She smiled wanly, “Yeah. I was just thinking.”

Felicity had been racking her brain for a way to tell Oliver that they were expecting a baby ever since yesterday afternoon’s disaster. She was sure that Oliver would come home and demand why she was acting so strangely but that never happened. Oliver had worked late and Felicity was already down in the bunker monitoring the team when he rushed in to suit up to join the others. 

They had had a busy night, there were several burglaries and Felicity had found a few places that she thought might have been their child kidnapper’s hideout, but the team had thoroughly searched them and nada. By the time they came back it was four o’clock in the morning and everyone was dead on their feet, especially her and as soon as she and Oliver got home, they both fell asleep. 

That morning they got ready for work as usual and Felicity waited with baited breath for him to bring up her odd behavior but he never did.

Honestly, she wasn’t that surprised. He had a lot on his mind. Felicity knew that Oliver was really feeling the stress to catch Avery Banks because more and more people were reporting missing children. Not to mention the new legislation Oliver was trying to get passed which was taking up a lot of his time.

That morning during her (decaffeinated) coffee break Felicity decided that she would take her time to try to come up with a memorable way to tell Oliver he was going to be a father. In hindsight, she should have done that from the get-go instead of rushing in with all of her anxiety and insecurities and no back-up plan what-so-ever, which was unusual for her. She normally tried to have back-up plans to her back-up plans which came in handy for her line of work 

Thea laughed, “About what? The cause for human existence?” 

Felicity shook her head in exasperation, “No.”

“For someone who likes to talk, you’re giving very cryptic answers,” Thea raised her eyebrow and sat down in the chair opposite of Felicity, “What’s up? You know you can tell me anything.”

Felicity bit her lip, her mind going into over-drive to come up with something plausible, she couldn’t tell Thea before Oliver. 

Or maybe she could. 

A smile crept onto her lips. She had an idea, but first she needed to tell Thea she was going to be an aunt.

The brunette narrowed her eyes, “Felicity? Why do you have that expression on your face.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Felicity spun around and pushed herself up out of her chair, chuckling to herself. 

She knew Thea would most likely be trying to figure out what was going on until she got back. Picking up her purse, she looked behind her to see Thea staring dumbfounded after her. Shaking her head, she didn’t try to cover up the self-satisfied grin that was covering her face or the sparkle in her eyes. Why didn’t she think up this before? This would be perfect!

 

When it came to hacking, Felicity was the queen (quite literally) and she didn’t mind breaking out her skills for Team Arrow or for anything she needed, really, so she was not ashamed to say that she used her probably (and by probably, she means most definitely) illegal back-channels to expedite the process of Etsy’s delivery services. That also meant that one Eliza Jones and one Mary Anderson would not be getting their expected packages today, but Felicity left them both a nice surprise of 200 dollars in their bank accounts as payment, so she didn’t feel too bad.

Apparently, there were a lot of expecting women in Star City who needed to break the news to their sisters or sister-in-laws because Felicity had had a lot of presents to choose from and ultimately Mary and Eliza won her appreciation (what, it wasn’t her fault that they had good taste. They should take it as a compliment.)

She wrapped her gifts in floral paper she found in her closet full of just-in-case-she-forgot-someone’s-birthday presents. Glancing at the clock in the bedroom, she knew that Oliver wouldn’t stop working for at least five hours, hopefully enough time for Thea to acquire what she wanted by tonight because she wanted to tell Oliver as soon as he got to the lair.

She grabbed her phone and hit speed-dial and waited for Thea to pick-up but it turned out not to be long because the phone barely rang once before she answered, “Finally! I have been calling you non-stop! What the heck was that this morning? It’s been killing me! What do you know? Who’s getting married?”

“Not even a hello?” Felicity asked dryly, well aware that Thea wanted to be let in on the secret. She had 45 missed calls to prove it.

There was a huff from the other end, “Felicity!”

Felicity laughed, “Okay, okay! Come to the mansion. You’ll find out soon enough.”

“I’ll be there in 5!” 

Felicity opened her mouth to say there was no way she could get out of the city in 5 minutes, let alone the Queen mansion, safely at least, but all she heard was a dial tone. Shaking her head, she hung up and threw the phone on the big California King. She couldn’t wait to tell Thea, she had been hinting that she would love to have a niece or nephew well before her and Oliver even got married so she knew that the news would be well received by at least one Queen. 

Going downstairs with the packages and her computer, she sat at the dining room table to do some work when she heard the front door open. Looking at time she noted it was exactly 5 minutes from when Thea called. That girl could defy anything if she put her mind to it.

She came running into the dining room, “I’m here!”

Felicity raised an eyebrow, “I see that. I also can’t believe you got here so fast. If I wasn’t seeing it, I wouldn’t have believed that it was possible without breaking something... Other than the speed limit.”

“You underestimate my abilities,” She flounced over to Felicity’s side.

“So? What juicy piece of gossip do you know?” Thea’s eyes sparkled.

Felicity smiled, trying not to burst with happiness, “Open your presents.”

She pushed the two carefully wrapped gifts towards Thea who looked at them in confusion, “It’s not my birthday. You know that.”

“Thea, just open them! This one first.” Felicity sighed in exasperation, handing her a medium cubed box.  
Thea looked at her skeptically but took the package. Felicity could hardly contain herself as she hovered over Thea, watching her facial expression. 

“What is this?” Thea asked as she pulled out a coffee cup that was stuffed with cloth.

Felicity bit her lip, eyes sparkling, “Turn it around!”

She watched as Thea rotated it and slowly read, “It says, ‘Freak out you’re going to be an Aunt!’”

Thea whipped her head around so fast to look at her, Felicity was afraid that she gave herself whiplash, “What!?”

Felicity laughed at her shocked face and wide eyes, “Look inside.”

With shaking hands, Thea quickly put down the mug and pulled out two rolled up onesies.

Felicity watched Thea’s expression, who was scanning the words the unbelieving eyes, “What do they say?” 

“This one says, ‘Don’t make me call my Aunt’,” Thea reached for the other one, “And this one says, ‘If mom says no, my aunt will say yes.’”

“Wait, what does this mean? Are you serious?” Thea whispered in shock. 

Felicity sniffed and wiped at tears that were starting to form, “Just open the other present.”

Thea snatched the present off the dining room table and tore into it. She took out the first shirt and held it up.   
It said, ‘The world’s best sister auntie’ with ‘sister’ crossed out.

Thea put down the shirt then held up the other one, “’Auntie Squad’. You have got to be kidding me!”

She lowered her arms, the shirt still clutched in her hands and tears in her eyes, “Felicity!? You’re having a baby?”

By this point, Felicity had tears running down her face. It felt nice to have someone other than just her know. It made it more real somehow, “Yeah. I’m really having a baby.”

And cue the screaming. 

Thea dropped the shirt and flung herself into Felicity’s arms, “This is sooooooo exciting! I’ve been waiting for this day for ages.”

She pulled back and Felicity was grateful to breathe again, “I’m so happy for you guys! You both deserve it.”

Felicity smiled, “Oliver especially. I’ve just got to figure out how to convince him of that fact.”

Thea raised her eyebrows, “What did my idiot brother do or say now?”

“Nothing, yet.”

“Wait, do you mean to tell me that you haven’t told Ollie he’s going to be a dad?”

At Felicity’s shake of her head, Thea grabbed her hands, “Why on earth not?”

The blonde sighed and pulled out a chair to sit down, Thea following suit, “I don’t know. Well, I do know, I guess I’m just afraid. What if he doesn’t want a baby? I mean we do lead pretty dangerous lives. That’s what took him so long to even allow us to be in a relationship. What if he decides that it’s too dangerous for us to have a baby. What then? And me, I mean I didn’t have the greatest example for a mother. She provided for me and did her best to raise me, don’t get me wrong, but nine out of ten times she left me alone at night, so she could work-Not that that, I don’t think or at least I hope not! But my point is, I don’t know how to be a mother! What if screw up and the kid hates me or if I forget to send it lunch and he starves! Or what if someone finds out Oliver’s the Green Arrow and kidnaps the baby or-“

Thea placed her hand on Felicity’s knee and she managed to stop, gulping in big breaths. Apparently, she had forgotten to breath during her spew of everything that she had been thinking and feeling since she found out about her pregnancy. And that wasn’t even everything she had thought of. Not even close. Who was she kidding? She could write a fracking 5000 page book! 

“Felicity calm down. You’re losing control,” Thea demanded sharply but took the sting out of her words by smiling softly. She crossed her arms and gave her a challenging look, “I have no idea what the heck you’re talking about, but I know for a fact that you are going to be a great mother.”

Felicity opened her mouth in confusion, to ask how could she possibly know that but Thea silenced her with a sharp glare.

“Uh-uh, my turn to talk. I think it’s safe to say that between all the blood, sweat, tears and we’re gonna die moments I’ve gotten to know you really well, not to mention that you’re my favorite sister-in-law-“

“I’m your only sister-in-law,” Felicity interjected with a weary smile.

Thea brushed her off, “My favorite sister-in-law. So that means that I’ve seen you at your weakest and strongest moments which means I know you really, really well. Felicity, I have seen you take control of a room-full of self-blaming, guilt-ridden hero’s, including myself, and say in no uncertain terms that it’s not our fault and that we had better get ourselves together and go save some lives. You can talk Oliver, Roy and John down from a fight faster than anyone I know, and they actually listen to you and make things right. You know when to give us advice and comfort even when we try our best to hide what we’re really feeling. And I know without a shadow of a doubt that we would all be dead ten times over if it wasn’t for you, that or requiring a lot more therapy.” 

“Truth is Felicity, you’re the one that holds this team together, Oliver might call the shots but we all know that you’re the real boss. You patch us up even when we were being stupid. You make us eat when were stressed to the hilt, even if you don’t get to eat yourself. When things get hard, you hide what you’re feeling, instead you focus on what the team needs. You’re our support beam, the light when it seems like the world is crashing down in front of us, the shoulder we cry on. Even though we’re the ones who go out every night, risking our lives, you’re the strongest of us all.” 

Thea leaned forward, clasping Felicity’s hand in hers, “That’s how I know you’re going to be the best mother you can be. This kid is lucky to have you as a mom and even luckier to have me and the team as the best aunts and uncles ever!”

Felicity, who was crying openly, engulfed Thea in a hug, “These stupid hormones.”

She sniffed and wiped at her eyes, “That was the best speech I think I’ve ever heard even if you are exaggerating. A lot.”

“Please, that isn’t even the half of it,” Thea rubbed Felicity’s back, “And don’t worry about Ollie. He’ll be over the moon, trust me.”

“Thea, you know, when I was younger I always wanted a sister. Someone I could talk to. Someone I could be best friends with and share news like this with. Even before I married your brother, I knew that I had found a sister and a treasured friend…in you. Thank you for always being here.”

Now Thea was the one crying, “Are you kidding me! You’re the one who’s been there for me. You’re my sister.”

Felicity laughed through tears, “Look at us. We’re a mess! But seriously, when I agreed to help your brother all those years ago, I did not expect to gain a husband and a sister for life.”

“Well, you’re stuck with us now,” Thea leaned back into her chair, drying her tears.

Felicity crossed her legs. It was time to get down to business, “I must confess, there is a reason I told you about the baby before Oliver other than my silly fears. I was kind of hoping if you could help me out with an idea I had to break it to Oliver.”

“Oh yeah,” Thea’s lips turned up in a sly smile, “What can I do to help?”

Felicity smiled deviously, an eyebrow raised, “How are your smuggling under the radar skills these days?”

 

“Thea?” Felicity whispered through the darkness of the bunker barely managing not to trip over a punching bag one of the boys left on the floor. She made a mental note of telling their resident vigilantes that picking up their belongings was just as important as saving the city.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t that important, but can a person blame her if she didn’t want to trip over something in the dark and break her neck, albeit the boys probably didn’t expect anyone to sneak around in the dark.  
She squinted into the blackness, trying to locate Thea, but seeing as how the only thing she could see was dark, it was proving to be useless.

“The-“ Felicity started to whisper when a sharp ‘Watch it!’ came from right in front of her. She was about 5 inches in front of Thea who was holding a white box to the side, away from any potential disaster.

“Oh, there you are. Did you get it?” Felicity whispered eyeing the box.

Thea huffed, whispering back, “Yes I got it, but it almost ended up on the floor. Why are we sneaking around in the pitch black dark and whispering? No one’s here but us.”

Felicity stuck her hand out and walked in the direction of the lever that would turn the power on, “I wanted to be sure. No sense in spoiling the surprise now.”

They both squinted against the harsh light that flickered on throughout the bunker, “You weren’t followed or anything, were you?”

Thea looked at her disbelievingly, “First of all, you made me promise to go on every back road between here and Pennytown. And second of all, do you really think I would come down here if I was being followed, enemy or not?”

“Sorry! Sorry, I just…I want this to be perfect.”

Thea frowned, grudgingly, “I know,” Her lips turned up into a smile, “Well? You wanna see it?”

Felicity’s eyes brightened and gestured to the table they usually ate dinner. Well, a more accurate description would be where they ate midnight snacks, actually, considering when they usually ate it was probably more like breakfast.

Thea set down the white box and carefully opened the lid, revealing a beautiful pastel two-tiered cake, the top pink, the bottom, blue, a green ribbon tying it together. On top it said in white frosting, “Congrats on your new addition!” 

Felicity beamed down at the cake. She had had the idea when she passed her favorite bakery and saw a cake that looked similar in the window and plus, she really wanted an excuse to eat some cake. This way they could celebrate with their family after she let Oliver find the cake. 

Felicity had sent Thea to pick out a cake at a bakery in Pennytown to lessen the chances of someone recognizing her. She would have gone herself, but she was to afraid that someone might recognize her seeing as how she was even more of a public figure than Thea what with Queen Consolidated and being the Mayor’s wife and put it in the press. At least this way if Thea had been discovered, she could take the heat and talk her way out of it instead of Felicity even though she was 99.9% sure that Thea would have threatened the poor soul within an inch of their life before they could start any rumors.

Besides, Felicity had made sure Thea was sufficiently disguised before leaving much to Thea’s displeasure, but Felicity was taking zero chances. She did not want to have to deal with Oliver, the team and reporters if anyone got a whiff of anything remotely interesting.

Felicity put an arm around Thea and squeezed, “Thank you. It’s perfect.” 

She placed a hand on her stomach as they stared at the cake in silence before it grumbled, letting her know that she was hungry. And no wonder why, she hadn’t eaten anything since a multi-grain bagel (Yes, she was healthy) that morning. 

“It looks like Mommy’s hungry,” Thea teased, closing the cake box, “Come on, get your stuff. We’re going to Big Belly Burger.”

Felicity bit her lip, “I don’t know Thea. What if someone walks in and sees the cake?”

Thea rolled her eyes and checked her watch, “The team, including Oliver, won’t be here for at least a couple of hours. We’ll hurry, and didn’t you say that Oliver had a meeting this evening?”

“I guess so,” Felicity hesitated before grabbing her purse and tablet, “You’re right. No one will be here this early.”

 

Roy whistled as he jogged down the metal stairs, feeling the cool air from the top secret basement turned arrow cave hit his face. He had finished up some work earlier than expected and since he had some time to kill he decided that he would get some vigilante practice in. He was finally almost as good at Oliver in terms of his aim and he was determined to get it as close as possible. He pulled the lever that controlled the power and drew in a breath as the large space was illuminated. He always felt at home here.

He went over to the case that held his bow and took it out, as he was reaching for his quiver he noticed some arrows he had never seen before sitting near Felicity’s work station. His interest piquing, Roy forgot about his quiver and went to inspect the arrows. 

They looked like their other arrows except they were slightly longer and bigger where the arrowhead fitted into the shaft. He picked one up carefully and found that they were lighter than he expected them to be. He balanced one and decided that if it hadn’t blown up in his face by now then he must be in the clear and it was safe for him to test out.

Roy studied it then gingerly fitted it into his bow, aiming away from Felicity’s computers. He had already learned that lesson the hard way and wasn’t wishing for a repeat of her loud voice anytime soon. Not to mention Oliver made him spar with Sara for a week strait.

As he was fidgeting with the grip and trajectory of the arrow, he turned to aim at one of the targets that was set up around the room. Unfortunately for him, he accidently pressed a small button he hadn’t noticed before and the arrow took off like it had a mind of it’s own.

There was a large boom followed by what sounded like glass shattering and wires frizzing out.

Roy gulped, closing his eyes before he could survey the damage. Maybe if he couldn’t see the destruction that was no doubt there, it would disappear. 

He risked a peak, then quickly squeezed his eyes shut. How was he going to talk himself out of this?

Roy slowly opened his eyes and cringed at the sight before him. The glass table that used to sit there was completely shattered, the large monitor that was attached to the wall was swinging like a pendulum. The busted-out lights flickered and made buzzing noises, random wires hanging from the ceiling were swaying through the smoke and was that…gobs of cake? He couldn’t tell underneath the char and glass.

Hesitantly, he took a step closer, flinching when the TV fell off the wall and crashed to the floor in a fury of electrical sparks.

“I’m in so much trouble,” Roy groaned, shaking his head in remorse. 

 

“So, I’ve been thinking the nursery could be-“ Felicity broke off, grabbing Thea’s arm to stop her at the top of the stairs.

Her heart rate suddenly spiked. She was almost positive that they had turned off the lights in the bunker before they left and yet, she could see the lights peeking up the stairwell, indicating someone had either been there and forgot to turn off the lights (which was totally possible. She forgot to turn out the lights nine out of ten times and that was before she was pregnant and forgetting where she put her tablet and that was attached to her hip) or they were still there. Most likely, whoever it was, was still there.

Eating had taken longer than expected but Felicity was hopeful that they would get back to the bunker before anyone showed up. Obviously, she should have listened to her gut and not even went out in the first place. Thanks, Thea. She would probably burst into tears if she came down the stairs to find Oliver leaning over the cake in shock.

“Whoever it is probably didn’t open the cake box,” Thea tried to reassure her after she understood why Felicity was on the verge of hyperventilating.

Felicity glanced at her sister-in-law, saying in a deadpan, “It’s a cake box. That’s like asking a burglar not to steal anything in a room full of diamonds,” She crinkled up her nose, “And what is that smell!”

Thea took an experimental sniff of the air, “It smells like burning acid.”

Felicity sighed, “Good, I thought I was going crazy. I’ve been smelling it since we walked in the door.”

The brunette gave her an odd look, “I certainly smell something but not from that far away.”

“I’ve found that being pregnant has given me a very heightened sense of smell. It gets annoying.”

Felicity put her hand to her nose, a sick expression on her face, “It’s getting worse.”

Thea pointed down the steps, “It’s coming from the bunker.”

“If something’s happened to my computers…” Felicity coughed, taking the stairs as fast as she could without being sick. Thea right on her heals.

Whatever Felicity was expecting to see, it sure wasn’t what she was seeing. She had assumed that someone might have spilled something on her keyboard or maybe even someone had somehow got lucky enough to hack into pretty much impenetrable computer systems. What she saw instead was Roy desperately trying to put out an electrical fire in the midst of catastrophic destruction.

Thea had the same disbelieving stare, “What happened?”

Roy whipped around with an expression of stark fear.

The archer gulped audibly at the sight of the two women staring at him with a look of confused horror.

“Should I even ask?” Felicity crossed her arms, trying to pull off the I’m-so-disappointed look whilst trying to cover the fact that she actually felt like puking.

Roy felt like a kid again and he had been caught with his hand stuck in the cookie jar with the way Felicity was glowering at him. On the other hand, Thea looked kind of like she was trying not to laugh. Roy wasn’t sure if he should be grateful that she didn’t look like she wanted to murder him or insulted that she thought Felicity wanting to murder him was funny.

“Look, Felicity before you hack into my bank account and make me less poor than I already am let me say that I didn’t mean to blow up anything and if it makes you feel any better, I think I got some burns on my hands from trying to put out the fire. I don’t want to complain but they kind of hurt-“ 

“Oh! You poor thing!” Felicity’s hands flew to her mouth and Roy nodded in agreement, thankful that Felicity might take pity on him.

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad-“

Felicity barely spared a glance at Roy as she whisked right past him, “Not you!”

Roy was dumbfounded as he watched Felicity crouch down to take a closer look at the destroyed monitor that laid in a heap.

“What did Roy do to you?” 

Felicity turned to look at him, tears in her eyes, “This physically hurts me.” 

Thea wasn’t even trying to hide her laughter now.

Felicity went back to inspecting the damage that the piece of tech had endured when she saw an interesting looking glob.

It was her cake. The one that was going to change Oliver’s life. And it was ruined.

That was the last straw.

She stood up, angry tears blurring her vision as she turned to face Roy. He must have seen something in her eyes because he took a tentative step back, his eyes growing wide.

Felicity took a deep breath, “ROY WILLIAM HARPER!!!!!”

“How dare you ruin my cake! And ruin my bunker. The one I paid for with Oliver’s hard-earned money! And ruin tech that costs more than a really expensive car! How dare you ruin my life!” 

By this point Roy was backed into the wall and Felicity was in his face, her hands clenched at her sides. She was quickly learning pregnancy made her emotional and a tiny bit dramatic…okay, a lot dramatic. She may have gone a little far on that last claim.

Thea wasn’t laughing anymore, instead she looked like she was trying to decide if Roy was worth saving.

Poor Roy looked terrified, “I’m really sorry, Felicity. I’ll do whatever it takes to clean this mess up. Please, don’t kill me.”

Felicity sniffed and angrily wiped away her tears, walking back towards the mess. Her breathing was starting to slow, and she felt a small amount of remorse for yelling at Roy, even though he deserved it and he ruined her second attempt at telling Oliver about the baby.

At that moment, Diggle and Oliver came barreling down the steps. Felicity could hear their voices carry across the bunker. The two men slowed, their words trailing off as they took in the destruction that Roy created.

“What in the world…?” John crossed his arms as he shifted into an exasperated stance.

If Felicity wasn’t so mad she would have laughed at the shocked expressions plastered onto the boys faces. 

Oliver’s eyes moved carefully over everything as he let out a sigh in disbelief, “What happened?”

She couldn’t take it anymore, she just couldn’t. These stupid pregnancy hormones! Somehow seeing Oliver made her even more livid than she had been.

Felicity threw her hands up in the air with a growl, storming off before she started yelling again.

Oliver stared after her in shock. 

Dig’s eyebrows were raised.

Roy looked bewildered.

And Thea was laughing again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At least Felicity got to tell Thea about the baby! I hope you enjoyed the scene between them as much as I enjoyed writing it! I know Oliver wasn't in this chapter much at all but I will try to include him some more in later chapters! Thank you for reading!
> 
> Questions, comments, concerns? Leave a review! They make smile ;)


	3. Third Time's the Charm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity hides baby things around the house in hopes that Oliver would figure out the news himself. Also, there's this thing...it's called pregnancy brain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews and follows! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Also, I am not a doctor and I've never been pregnant so all the symptoms are things I've read or seen on TV. Another thing: I do understand that if something like this happened on the show, Oliver would either figure it out or hound Felicity about it until she told him the truth. I wanted Felicity to have 5 attempts before Oliver knew so he had to be kind of oblivious.
> 
> Happy Reading!
> 
> Disclaimer: Not mine.

“I don’t know Thea. It’s been a week since I found out and I still haven’t found a way to tell him nor has he brought up how weird I’ve been acting. I’ve managed to keep him from finding out about my morning sickness, though.”

Felicity was laid back in her desk chair at Queen Incorporated with her phone cradled between her ear and her shoulder flipping through a file on plans for a new branch in Tokyo.

“Maybe you should just tell him. As soon as you two get a minute alone just say, ‘I’m pregnant’ and then he’ll know,” Thea’s voice came through the other end of the phone.

Felicity sighed and sat the file on her large glass desk, spinning around to look out of her floor to ceiling window at the tall skyscrapers that were clustered throughout the large city. 

That view never failed to reassure her that all of the danger, all of the worry, the all-nighters, all the emotional breaks; It was all worth it to save the millions of people who were blissfully unaware of the evils that strived to take Star City and turn it into a playground for all of the worst kinds of people. Their city may never be truly safe but as long as Oliver and the team were alive, they would do whatever it takes to make Star City even just a little bit safer. 

“I know, but the more I think about it the more I want it to be special and fun. I don’t want to just blurt it out. Oliver deserves to have something special he can tell our son or daughter about when they ask how he found out about them,” Her voice softened as she placed a hand over her midsection, “I would have given anything for my dad to tell me how my mom told him that she was pregnant with me.”

Thea was silent, and Felicity had a feeling that she was thinking about her own father. Felicity felt sad that Robert Queen wasn’t alive to see the incredible people his children had grown into and even more sad that he wouldn’t get to meet his grandchildren, but she was mostly sad for Oliver. 

He wouldn’t get to ask his father for advice or get to tell him about what new trick their child learned that day. Robert Queen may not have been the perfect father, but he loved his kids, even Thea who wasn’t even biologically his.

“You should give that to Ollie. No matter how long it takes,” There was a pause, “Just not too long. He’d be bound to notice the weight you’re going to gain.”

“Haha,” Felicity laughed as sarcastically as possible. That was something she was not looking forward to.

Thea chuckled on the other end, “Alright, well I’d better let you get back to work. I have to go do the books for Verdant and make sure no one’s drinking out of the Tequila bottles.”

Felicity spun around (slowly, she found out the hard way that spinning triggered her morning sickness), 

“Okay, I’ll see you tonight then.”

“Yeah and good luck. Tell me when you come up with a new plan.”

“Will do,” She placed the phone back into its base.

Felicity typed in the password to her computer. If there was one thing she could do, it was research. Surely the internet had some kind of creative way to tell Oliver.

 

“Thanks, Frank,” The security man smiled as he held the door open for the struggling blonde. 

She had two largish white shopping bags in her hands along with her computer bag and a stack of folders. Felicity dropped her bags in the foyer of Queen Manor. 

That afternoon after her talk with Thea she had gotten down to business and scoured the internet for ideas to break her news to Oliver. She had finally found one that wasn’t too cheesy but still unique and fun.

It took some doing, but she was able to purchase what she needed without anyone recognizing her. She would be grateful for the day that she would be able to go baby shopping without fear of being discovered.

She checked her watch, relieved that she would have enough time to hide the items around the house before Oliver came to pick her up to go to the bunker.

Felicity took her bags into the kitchen and sat them down on the recently renovated counter. She couldn’t deny how excited she felt as she stood in front of all the baby things and picked out onesies and a few bottles that she had gotten for her scavenger hunt. Her plan was to hide baby things in places that Oliver was more likely to look and let him figure it out all on his own.

She couldn’t wait to see his face when he came to her with a onesie in hand.

 

Felicity bit back the urge to scream in frustration as she made her fruit smoothie for the day. If Oliver didn’t find something related to the baby soon she might just go crazy. It had been two days since she hid the stuff she bought! Two! And Oliver hadn’t found a single thing!

All of yesterday she waited with baited breath and since they had both worked mostly from home all day she was sure Oliver would have found something by now but nope! She had been prepared to wait but this was ridiculous. She had even made sure to hide things in the places that he would most likely discover something. 

The man prided himself on his observational skills and she had to hand it to him that it has saved his life on more than one occasion but apparently when it came to finding a onesie that was peeking out from behind a throw pillow, those skills were non-existent.

And of all the times for him not to sit down in the chair that he always sits down in it had to be when there was a rattle beneath the throw blanket!

I mean, she had even put her brand-new copy of ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’ in the stack of books that was on one of the end tables in their main living room.

Nor had he found the teething ring that she had put in one of her potted plants! Yeah, okay that one was a little harder but still! Was he blind?!

She could only hope that this morning he would find something, anything, even if he didn’t know what it was.   
There was no way she could take much more of this.

“Hey, Honey,” Oliver walked briskly into the kitchen, smoothing down his black tie. He stopped next to her as she offered him her cheek for him to kiss, “You were out of bed early this morning. Did you have something you needed to do before going to work?”

“I needed to study something,” Yes. The bathroom tiles as she sat in the guest bathroom in front of the porcelain toilet trying not to puke her guts out. Not like she was going to tell Oliver all that.

If Oliver thought her response was cryptic, he didn’t mention it, instead, he grabbed his Yeti tumbler from the drainer and went to fill it up with coffee.

“Felicity? Why is there no coffee?” She looked up to see him standing confused, the clean, empty coffee pot in his hand.

“We’re out,” She went back to adding a banana to the blender.

Felicity could feel his disbelieving gaze on her, “We’re out? You keep this stuff stockpiled. How can we be out?”

“I took a few bags to QI because we were out there, and I forgot to order the next shipment, so yes, we’re out.” 

Actually, she hid the remaining five bags of coffee in the wine cellar this morning before he was up because when she went to make coffee, the smell alone made her want to have a repeat visit to the toilet.

She risked a glance at Oliver and he was staring at her skeptically, but he put the pot back in the coffee maker, “I guess I’ll just make some tea and get some coffee at City Hall.”

Oliver moved around her to open the drawer that held all of their hot/cold beverages, listening to her rambling about all the work she needed to do today including her plans to hack into some off-shore bank accounts that may or may not have Avery Banks tied to them.

“Hey, Felicity?” Oliver interrupted. Which was odd, normally he just let her babble all the while smiling at her with that adorable amused expression that he seemed to only pull out for her.

“Yep?” She glanced in his direction, her eyes going wide at the sight of him holding a newborn baby bottle.

How the heck did she forget that she hid a bottle in that drawer!? Pregnancy brain was a real thing, it turns out, which sucked for her because she had enough trouble with her normal brain, specifically the part that controls thinking before speaking.

While she was staring at him trying to get her words flowing, which normally wasn’t a problem for her, he was looking at the bottle but instead of a perplexed ‘does this mean what I think it means’ look, it was more of a ‘this doesn’t even faze me because finding baby bottles in our drawers is totally predictable’ look. 

“Who’s sippy cup?”

This was it! Her chance to give him the best news of their lives! Come on, Felicity, it’s not that hard. Just say, ‘Our baby’s. The one who is currently being housed in my womb but will be here sooner than you think and by the way, that’s a baby bottle, not a sippy cup which you will need to figure out because you’re going to be a father! Surprise!’

But instead of all that, the only thing she could manage was a strangled “Uhhh…”

He barely spared her a glance as he sat the bottle on the counter and started making his tea, “It must be JJ’s. He probably left it here by accident.”

Felicity felt like she was in some kind of weird horror movie where she was stuck to watch everything in slow motion and the ability to talk was snatched away but no one seemed to notice or want to do anything about it.

She imaged she must look like fish when they do that thing with their mouth as she watched Oliver prepare his tea in silence.

He looked at his watch and bit out a curse in Russian, “I’m sorry, Felicity, but I’ve got to run. I have that meeting with the city council this morning to go over ways we can cut down on pollution in the industrial district.”

Felicity only nodded as she stared straight ahead trying to process what had just happened. 

Oliver gave her a peck on the lips, “Love you. Have a good day at work.”

She heard him open and close the front door.

Felicity slumped onto to one of their bar stools, dumbfounded, “What the Frack just happened?!”

 

Oliver typed in the code to the bunker and ran down the stairs to see his wife and the other members of the team surrounding their new glass table (Roy broke the last one). Felicity was studying her tablet intensely while the others were watching surveillance on the big monitor (also new because Roy broke the last one).

“Wait,” Sara said suddenly, moving closer to the screen, “Back it up!”

Felicity replayed the footage and slowed it down as much as she could. They all stared, hoping that Sara had found some kind of breakthrough.

“There!” Sara pointed at a hooded figure and Felicity paused the video.

Laurel squinted, “He looks like he’s hiding something.”

Felicity got up and stood with the others, enlarging the picture with her tablet.

Thea pursed her lips, “He’s definitely hiding something under his hoodie.”

“Is it a baby?” Roy looked doubtful.

Felicity shot him a look, “Yes, because that’s how they have been smuggling children, under their jackets this whole time.”

“Well, then what is it? He looks suspicious and he came from that warehouse that was a possible location on Banks’ hideout.”

John moved closer to the monitor, “Can you get facial recognition? Something that can lead us back to Banks?”

Felicity shook her head, “I can try but, it’s dark and not that clear of a picture. I’m getting this surveillance which was recorded on an ancient model from a block away.”

She started up the program, but the results came back inconclusive, “It’s too blurry. Let me see if I can follow him. Maybe I can find out what he’s hiding.”

Felicity started typing on her tablet and brought up different surveillance videos until the man finally appeared in an alleyway. They watched as he looked around cautiously, reaching inside his hoodie. The team waited with baited breath hoping that this would be something to lead them to Banks, their latest human trafficker. 

“Is that…” Laurel’s eyebrows shot up, “A pizza?”

Sure enough, the guy had drawn out a slightly crumbled pizza box. Whatever they thought he might be hiding, it sure wasn’t that. They all watched in shocked fascination as he walked up to what looked like a homeless mother and her child and gave them the pizza.

“Seriously!” Thea exclaimed, “Our only suspect turns out to be a pizza stealer for homeless kids!”

Felicity sighed and plopped down into a chair, “How hard is it to find one human trafficker? I swear Damian Darhk was easier.”

Sara crossed her arms, “Well, at least someone’s actually being kind to people, even if that includes stealing a pizza.”

John sighed, rubbing a hand over his face then turned to Oliver who had been standing in the back, watching with just as much hope as the others. They had been trying to find this guy for a week and had nothing more than dead ends to show for it.

“How was city hall today man?”

Oliver shook his head, “Better than this is going.”

Laurel looked at Oliver, “So, what now? I’ve exhausted all efforts with all the ADA’s.”

Roy shrugged, glancing at Thea and Sara, “Yeah, we’ve asked all over the Glades and this guy is paranoid. Even more paranoid than the usual child trafficker.” 

Oliver looked at Felicity, “What about you? Have you found anything else?”

“Nope,” She shook her head, “Those bank accounts were not helpful, and you’ve searched everywhere I thought might be his secret lair but that went nowhere. He uses cash and avoids cameras so every time I find him I lose him again within a 5-mile radius. I’ve got nothing.”

Oliver braced his hands on the back of a chair, “I think we’re just going to have to start over and see if there’s anything we missed unless anyone has a better idea.”

Everyone shook their heads and Oliver walked over to Felicity’s computers and typed in the password, “Where is that file with all of Banks’ locations?”

Felicity closed her eyes and resisted the urge to facepalm, “It’s on my other USB which is at the Manor. I meant to grab it this morning, but I forgot.”

It was Oliver’s fault, really. It was his actions that made her so shocked she barely remembered to grab her tablet. 

Also, there was this thing called pregnancy brain.

Oliver didn’t look too mad, just amused and for that she was thankful. She didn’t know if she could keep the waterworks at bay if he snapped at her, then he would feel bad and want to know why she was crying and yeah…that whole scenario again. The one that would force her to blurt out ‘I’m pregnant’ in front of everybody.

“Take someone with you and go get it,” Felicity opened her mouth to protest but Oliver smiled, “Don’t worry,   
Felicity, if I need to go out, John will do comms.” 

Thea grabbed her keys, “I’ll come with you.”  
“Let’s make it a girl’s night,” Laurel grabbed her purse and Sara stuck a gun in the waistband of her jeans.

Oliver nodded, “Why don’t you just stay at the house. You’ll be more comfortable there. Roy, Digg and I will look through the files that are here.”

Felicity felt like throwing her arms around him and giving him the best kiss she’d ever given him. She was tired and hungry, and she had a headache, so she would take the offer to work in the comfort of her own home.

She had discovered pretty quickly that pregnancy wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be.

 

“Whew,” Thea fell back across the couch in the den that was closest to the kitchen, “This couch feels so good.”

Laurel dropped her purse and sat down, “I like the bunker just as much as the next person but there is nothing like Queen Manor.”

Sara followed suit and plopped down in one of the comfier chairs, “If we’re going to pull an all-nighter, I’m gonna need some food and comfy clothes.”

“Agreed,” Felicity flipped on the light switches, “I’ll go pop in a pizza.”

Laurel stood up and stretched, “Sounds good. I think I left my favorite pair of sweatpants here.”

It was decided long ago to keep some clothes at each other's houses for convenience and situations like this. Sometimes they even have spontaneous sleepovers to either marathon TV shows or go over Arrow stuff. Since the Queen house is so large each person gets their own room stocked with their clothes and personal toiletries.

A few minutes later they were all dressed in their PJ’s and assembled in the den, sitting on the floor with blankets and pillows. There were files scattered everywhere and Felicity’s computers were set up on the coffee table.

“I don’t know about you girls, but I’m glad that I left the USB this morning and that Oliver suggested we just stay here,” Felicity eased herself down to the floor between the couch and coffee table.

Beside her, Sara sat with her legs crossed. Laurel sat on one end of the table, her legs spread out with files in between. Thea was on her stomach at the other end, her hand propping up her head and her legs in the air as she studied her stack of paper.

The other girls hummed in agreement and Sara reached over the table to grab the power cord to plug into the computer, “I never pass up a party at the Queens.”

Laurel looked at her sister, “You call sifting through folders looking for a human trafficker, a party?”

“In our line of work, this is considered a party. We’re not currently being tortured, we’re doing something to further ridding the world of the scum of the earth and I’m hanging out with my best friends.”

Thea smiled, “Yeah, even though I’m tired, I thoroughly enjoy quiet nights like this with you guys not that I don’t like being in the bunker with the guys but it’s nice to feel normal,” Then she laughed, “I love how tracking a human trafficker is normal. But seriously, without you guys, this wouldn’t be half the fun it is.”

They sat in silence for a few seconds. A loud sniff broke it. Thea, Laurel, and Sara looked at Felicity.

“Are you crying?” Sara raised an eyebrow.

She swears this is the hormones that come from pregnancy. She has never been this weepy in her life!

Felicity wiped away the tears and fanned her face to keep more tears from falling, “It’s just I…you guys are my best friends and before Oliver drug me into this life of vigilantism with his stupid excuses, I didn’t have anyone and now I have a better life than I ever dreamed of, with people I can call my family.”

“We love you too Felicity, but we didn’t mean to make you cry,” Laurel looked at her hesitantly, “Are you alright?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into me,” Felicity sniffed with a frown. She knew exactly what had gotten into her. A baby.

She could feel Thea’s all-knowing stare on her as she wiped her nose on a Kleenex that was offered by Sara.   
Laurel and Sara were exchanging concerned glances and if Felicity didn’t stop crying soon she was afraid that they might go to Oliver and…you know the drill.

Sara stood up, “Look, I know exactly what you need. I know you’ve been stressed with work and with finding this guy,” She motioned to the scattered files, “You need some wine to unwind.”

Felicity’s eyes widened. That was the absolute last thing she needed but Sara didn’t know that and neither did Laurel but one look at Thea’s face reflected her own expression. She couldn’t flat out refuse the wine because then they would definitely know something was up but how was she going to get out of this one?

She turned back to Thea with a look that screamed, do something! Anything! 

Thea stood up quickly, “Uhhhh,” She looked like she was frantically trying to think up a way to get their minds off the wine.

She snapped her fingers, “Gee, that would be really nice, but all the wine bottles busted.”

Felicity looked at her in disbelief. Okay, obviously lame excuses ran in the family. She really hoped the baby would not inherit that skill. Or maybe it would come in handy if he or she was trying to cover up for something they did. 

She honestly wondered how Oliver got away with everything he did when he was younger. At least, when it really, really mattered both Thea and Oliver could pull off a semi-decent lie but when it came to lying to friends; don’t look to the Queen siblings.

“What?” The Lance sisters asked in unison. They both looked thoroughly confused. Heck, Felicity was confused.

Sara crossed her arms, “Okay, let me get this straight. All 300 and some wine bottles that are down in the wine cellar, some of which cost a small fortune, busted? Just like that or was there some kind of earthquake that only hit the manor? Somehow, I think I would have known about this before now. Oliver would not be happy.”

Thea, however, nodded like all this was perfectly normal, “Yeah, that sounds about right,” Sara and Laurel somehow looked even more confused as Thea grabbed the TV controller, “Let’s watch a movie.”

At this point, the Lance sisters were just kind of staring at Thea like she had lost her mind. Felicity was just about to say something, she didn’t know what, but it was going to be great and it would save her and Thea’s hide’s when she got a whiff of something burning.

Laurel sniffed, “Do you guys smell burning?”

And then it hit her. The pizza! She totally forgot she put it in the oven. Pregnancy brain.

Felicity flung off the blanket that was covering her legs and jumped up, running to the oven before she had to explain to Oliver that she had burned down their newly remodeled kitchen.

There was smoke seeping through the cracks around the door of the oven and Felicity was very grateful that those ginger tablets she had been taking seemed to help with her all-the-time sickness or she would be throwing up in the toilet right now.

Thea ran in as she was trying to blow the smoke away from the smoke detectors. They were connected to the fire station and she really didn’t want ‘Felicity Queen Burns Down House’ in the news headlines tomorrow.

“What happened?” Thea turned off the oven then ran to join her in waving away the smoke with a dish rag.  
Felicity did a quick check to make sure Sara and Laurel didn’t follow Thea before she whispered, “Pregnancy brain is a real thing, Thea.”

She coughed in the crook of her arm, “Where’s Laurel and Sara?”

Thea glanced at her wryly, “I left them staring in shock which leads me to my next point, why exactly are we not telling them that you’re going to have a baby?” Then her eyes widened, “Don’t tell me you still haven’t told Oliver!? He still hasn’t figured it out?”

Felicity gave her a look, “I would have told you if I told him or if he figured it out but as it turns out Oliver is like super oblivious when it comes to babies.”

“What happened?” 

Felicity rolled her eyes, annoyed just thinking about it, “Well, you know how I told you that I hid those baby things around the house?”

Thea nodded as she waved her dish rag in front of the fire alarm, “Yeah, that’s why I thought that maybe he had found something but if he had he would have been bursting at the seams earlier but that was not the case so…That obviously didn’t work.”

“Oh, it worked all right,” Felicity stated sarcastically.

Thea looked at her in confusion, “What? But Oliver didn’t say anything…”

“That’s because he still doesn’t know. He found a baby bottle and thought it was JJ’s.”

Thea’s eyebrows shot up, “He found a baby bottle and thought it was JJ’s? Okay, I know Oliver’s forte is more arrowing people and less newborns, but I thought he knew the difference between a baby bottle and a sippy cup for four-year-olds.”

“Yeah, well, so did I but I guess he doesn’t pay that much attention to what kids drink out of unless it’s poisoned or something. Anyways, I was too shocked at his reaction to say anything to the contrary.”

 

Meanwhile back in the living room Sara and Laurel were still trying to process what they had just witnessed.   
They were slightly concerned that Thea had hit her head on a patrol and hadn’t said anything. 

Laurel looked at her sister, “Please tell me you saw all that and I’m not in some strange dream.”

“Well if you’re dreaming then I’m dreaming the same thing,” Sara plopped down in a chair then pulled a face, standing back up.

Laurel started forward, “What is it?”

Sara leaned down and removed the large blanket that covered the chair as decoration. She held up what looked like a baby rattle. Sara stared at it like she wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Why is there a rattle in here and why is it on this chair?” The blonde asked incredulously.

Laurel started to shake her head, “Don’t look at me…” She trailed off as something caught her eye.

She walked over to where Sara deposited the throw blanket and picked up a small white thing, “What on earth? It’s a onesie.”

At this point, Sara’s face was screaming ‘What is happening?’ as she started looking under random couches. She didn’t really know what she was expecting to find but she looked anyway. 

Laurel must have had the same idea because she was rifling through all the blankets and lifting all the pillows. 

A few minutes later they had come up with an assortment of baby items. A few onesies, a pacifier, some pink booties, and a diaper; It was clean much to their relief.

After they had thoroughly looked under all the couches, pillows and blankets, they weren’t entirely sure what to make of their findings because why would Queen Manor have baby things hidden everywhere? Was this some kind of prank?

Sara was going through a stack of books that was on an end table. On top, she found Tech Predictions for 2035 (that one was Felicity’s). Under it was How to Become a Dictator: Hitler Edition (Was Oliver planning on becoming a dictator? She hoped not). Next was Unsolved Theorems and Algorithms for Geniuses (definitely Felicity’s) and under that was The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America (she wasn’t sure what to make of that one and when did Oliver and Felicity have time to read? They were the busiest people she knew, and she knew international assassins so…)

The last book was What to Expect When You’re Expecting. 

Wait? What the…

“Umm, Laurel? Why would Felicity have a copy of What to Expect When You’re Expecting?” Sara turned on her heels and held up the book.

Laurel raised her eyebrows in surprise and suspicion, “I don’t know, unless…”

Sara looked at her sister and she knew they were both thinking along the same lines, “Thea made up that ridiculous ‘bottles busting’ story just to avoid the wine…”

Laurel nodded, “And Felicity’s seemed really tired lately and the other day she looked a little sick when Digg got take-out. Now that I think about it she’s been kind of emotional recently and the pizza…”

Sara and Laurel looked at each other in shock and realization, all of the evidence was surrounding them. 

Literally. In the forms of baby bottles and onesies.

“Oh my God…”

 

Felicity scrunched up her nose as she pulled the burnt pizza from the oven, smoke coming out the open door.   
Thea waved the dish towel to disperse the rest of the wispy fumes.

“You don’t happen to have a craving for burnt pizza, do you?” Thea looked at the pizza then back at her.

Felicity frowned, “I haven’t had any cravings, yet. That comes at the beginning of the second trimester and please promise me that if I do happen to crave burnt pizza, you’ll stop me.” 

Thea smiled mischievously, “I promise to stop you from eating disgusting foods…after I get documentation for years down the road.”

Felicity refrained from rolling her eyes and stomping her foot like a child instead she resulted to popping Thea’s butt with a dish rag.

Just as they were about to start a butt popping contest, Laurel and Sara came bursting into the kitchen. Felicity briefly thought that maybe they had found something on Banks while she and Thea saved the house from burning down but then she caught sight of what they had in their hands.

“Felicity are you pregnant?” Laurel burst out as she came to a standstill in front of her and Thea whose eyes had widened as she slowly lowered the hand towel down to her side, all thoughts of retaliation gone. 

At the same time, Sara shouted, “You’re gonna have a baby!?” As she almost ran into her sisters back.

As for Felicity, she just stood in disbelief. How did Sara and Laurel find all of that in five minutes and deduce what it meant when Oliver couldn’t find the same things in two whole fracking DAYS!

She was cursed. That was the only explanation. Maybe she should call John Constantine.

She could faintly hear Thea making another lame excuse as to why there were a bunch of baby supplies hidden in their living room but at this point, it was no use. The Lance sisters weren’t buying what Thea was selling. She appreciated the thought though.

“Seriously!?” Felicity couldn’t stay quiet anymore. She felt cheated, “How!? I just can’t believe it!”

Not for the first time since she found out she was pregnant did people stare at her like she was having a mental break. She didn’t blame them. She had started crying again which turns out, is her new normal.

Laurel smiled tentatively, “So, it’s true. You are pregnant?” 

Might as well give them their presents now that the cat’s out of the bag. Felicity walked out of the room, feeling their confused stares as she left. A few minutes later, she handed the Lance sisters two boxes wrapped in Christmas paper (she forgot where she put the non-Christmas paper and she didn’t want to have to ask Raisa).

“What…?” Sara gave her a confused look. Laurel had a matching expression.

Felicity rolled her eyes, “Just open them.”

They both pulled out identical grey shirts that read, ‘Auntie Squad’.

Thea’s eyes started sparkling, “Hey! I got one too.”

Sara and Laurel both had tears in their eyes, “Really? We get to be aunts?”

“Of course, you are! What else could you be? You’re family. I mean you’re basically my sisters,” Felicity pulled them into a hug, one that Thea joined. Felicity was not ashamed to say that she felt proud for eliciting tears from hardened vigilantes.

“How did you manage to convince Ollie not to shout it to the world?” Sara asked Felicity, laughingly.

Felicity sighed, “Because he doesn’t know.”

“He doesn’t know!?” Sara and Laurel chorused in surprise.

Laurel frowned, “I thought he would be the first to know. Not that I’m flattered to be let in on it before the husband.”

“Yeah, well, the plan was to tell him first but it’s a lot harder than I anticipated. I certainly was not expecting to blow up a cake in the process, I can tell you that much.”

Sara and Laurel gawked at Felicity.

Thea snorted, “We’re gonna need some popcorn. Lots of popcorn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to let Sara and Laurel in on the secret. Tell me what you thought. Did it make you laugh? Or cry? (Because my writing is so moving...just kidding.) As always, thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Questions, comments, concerns? Leave a review!


	4. Green Heels and Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fourth time's the charm, right? Wrong! Coffee dosn't solve life's problems, unfortunately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the delay in updating. Between school and binge-watching all of my favorite TV shows in preparation for new seasons, I haven't had time to write! I hope you enjoy! And, as always, thanks for your kind reviews and follows! They mean so much!
> 
> Happy Reading!
> 
> Disclaimer: I wish Arrow was mine...

She wore emerald green Mary Janes; they were healed and one of her favorite pairs because they reminded her of him. Tall, dark, and handsome. The man of her dreams.

The blonde smoothed her hands over the non-existent baby bump, slightly nervous because she still hadn’t told him about the baby.

The news was not expected nor was it ever really talked about. She recognized the fact that this was probably not the best time to bring a child into the world what with how busy their lives were but, was there ever a perfect time? 

She knew she just needed to tell him even though the idea was slightly terrifying, not knowing if he would run away or stay and be the best father he could be.

She smiled, although she wasn’t sure if she was quite up to the task of shaping a person, she somehow knew that no matter what happened, her child was going to be special. 

He or she was going to do great things one day.

 

Felicity adjusted the strap of her emerald green Mary Jane’s, using the wall as support. Her name was being called from upstairs and she could vaguely hear doors opening and closing.

“Where is that tie that Gorge gave me?” Oliver’s voice floated down the stairs.

She paused, pursing her lips and standing upright before yelling back, “Why? You hate that tie.”

A few seconds passed before he shouted in response, “I have a meeting with the district overseers today and I really don’t want to hear Gorge complain for two hours. So, I was thinking that if I wore the tie he gave me, maybe he’ll be in a slightly less grouchy mood today and save the rest of us from hearing the things that he wants fixed but doesn’t do anything about fixing the problems.”

By now he was leaning over the railing, clearly waiting for a response. Felicity refrained from rolling her eyes. 

That was something marriage taught her; husbands depend on their wives when looking for things they had misplaced.

She had been warned about that from her married friends, but she assured them that Oliver knew where everything was because, duh. He was the Green Arrow. He remembered things. Of course, it would be the same for marriage (not that she told them her reasoning).

However, she found out that apparently, married Oliver Queen forgot where he put his clothes. Maybe it was a thing that all husbands do.

“I put it on your tie rack like I do with all of your ties.”

Oliver frowned, “I looked there.”

Felicity raised her eyebrows, “Well, look again.”

Oliver went turned and went back into the hall. She sighed, running her hands over her non-existent baby bump. After Sara and Laurel found out, Felicity removed all of the baby items she had hidden around the house because she had decided the anticipation was going to kill her. Besides, Oliver didn’t seem to be cooperating because he wasn’t playing very well, but to be fair, he was an unwilling participant which really means he was playing a game he didn’t even know existed.

Which leaves her with the recurring theme of how she was going to tell Oliver about the baby. At this point, maybe she should just wait and let it tell him.

Oliver came downstairs tying the tie he supposedly couldn’t find without her help.

Felicity smiled at him as he walked up to her and wrapped his arms loosely around her, “So, I see you found it,” She reached up and adjusted the knot, “What would you do without me?”

Oliver looked at her tenderly, “I’d be lost.”

She reached up to give him a kiss, knowing exactly where he would be if she wasn’t there to make sure he found joy and beauty that can make life so full.

 

“Go fish,” Sara said in a deadpan. 

They were gathered around the seating area in Felicity’s office at Queen Incorporated. She watched as Laurel picked up a card, her face scrunching up in a grimace. Apparently, it wasn’t the card she was fishing for.

Thea had a book in front of her, Laurel had two, and Sara had none. Felicity, however, had four. 

What? It wasn’t her fault that she grew up in Vegas playing every card game known to man. Of course, it helped to be a certified math genius. 

It was a usual occurrence that when her best friends showed up at her office, they played a card game. Now usually, they gambled but Felicity had given out all of the candy she kept in the office to the kids standing right outside of the high-rise. They looked bored and hot as they took shelter from the sun under one of the few large Oak trees right in the middle of downtown.

“Sooo,” Laurel shifted her cards around, “What’s plan D for telling Ollie about the baby?”

Felicity shook her head, “I have no idea,” She lifted her gaze from her cards to rest on Thea, “Do you have a 5?”

Thea checked her cards, then stuck out her tongue as she dutifully handed the card over. Felicity laughed in triumph as she placed down another book, everyone groaning at her success.

“Why do we even play with you? You always win!”

Felicity smiled in glee, “You just love me.”

Play went on in minimal silence until Sara shifted in her seat.

“I thought of a great idea for telling Oliver. You should hire one of those biplanes to carry a banner behind it saying ‘Congrats Oliver! You’re going to be a father!’ That would make a really good story,” She fought a smile tugging at her lips.

Felicity stared at her like she had grown another head, “Are you kidding me?! NO! I’ve already told the three of you and that’s three more people than I planned to tell before Oliver, so no! I am not going to let another soul know before he gets the news.”

Laurel and Thea were trying to hide their smile and Sara couldn’t contain her amused look, “Sorry. It was just an idea.”

Felicity frowned begrudgingly, “Well, at least it’s better than the idea I had at two O’clock this morning when I couldn’t fall asleep. I was debating on inviting my mother to stay and letting her ‘accidentally’ inform Oliver right after I leave the country.”

 

She leaned up against the balcony railing, taking in a deep breath and surveying her surroundings. She loved this spot. It was so high up and she felt free; like she could do anything she set her mind to. The lights always amazed her, the way they sparkled and kept the city alive even at night.

There was a cool breeze that whipped her hair and bit her nose, but she didn’t mind, she liked it.

She thought of her baby, the one who wasn’t even bigger than a lime. She thought of all the dangers that lurked in the city she loved so much.

She caressed her stomach, “Don’t worry little one. I’ll protect you from all the bad guys that want to hurt you. Your mommy loves you so much and so will your daddy but, I haven’t worked up enough nerve to tell him you exist yet.”

“Can you believe me? See, even mommies get scared sometimes,” The blonde let out a sigh, “Does that make me a bad mother? I hope not cause you’re stuck with me now.”

She sighed again, biting her lip in worry as she looked over the lit up skyline.

 

Felicity sighed as she opened the balcony door and stepped out, coming to lean on the railing. She looked out over the city that she and the team strived every night to save. It was beautiful at night, the lights lighting up the night sky, keeping the city alive even at a late hour.

She hated heights, it was true, but for some reason standing on the top floor of the tallest building in the city looking down at the ants on the sidewalk didn’t seem to faze her. It almost comforted her. It always had, ever since Oliver coerced her into being his highly overqualified secretary.

Maybe that’s why she liked it, because the first time she came out here, it was to comfort Oliver who was stressed by being the Green Arrow and keeping Queen Consolidated, at the time, afloat. She remembered walking out on a night like this to see him bent over, his elbows resting on the railing and his head in his hands. 

She remembered her heartbreaking at the sight of his face. He had been crying, his eyes were hollowed and red, his beard grown out more than normal, his hair sticking up at odd angles from running his hands through it. At that time, Oliver normally hid any weakness from her and it had been shocking to see him open up to her.

She had held out her arms, not saying anything, and he just collapsed into them as he cried. She held him and rocked him and cried silently right alongside him. She cried for Oliver, for the city, for the people they couldn’t save. For Diggle, for Thea and even for Sara and Laurel who at the time, made her feel weak and defenseless.

The next morning, neither of them said anything about it but Oliver seemed to have an extra bounce in his step and she knew that that cry had been good for them both.

Felicity rubbed her stomach. Her baby, that was only as big as a lime (she did research).

“Hey, sweetie. It’s your mommy, but I guess you already know that, huh? You can’t hear yet but since you are in there I feel slightly less crazy when I talk to myself. I still haven’t told your daddy about you. I must confess, I’m kind of scared. Not because I’m afraid he won’t love you, no, no he’s going to love you so much that it hurts. It’s that he’ll be afraid that someone might hurt you because you see, your daddy is the Green Arrow and he protects the city from really bad guys. So that means he has enemies, so he’s always afraid that they’re going to come and hurt the people he loves as revenge. Like me and now you.”

She sniffed, wiping away tears. What? So? Talking to her unborn baby was emotional. Sue her.

Felicity bit her lip as the cold air whipped her blonde hair, “Even mommies get scared sometimes but your daddy will protect us, Peanut. I hope that doesn’t make me a bad mother because I’m afraid you’re stuck with me now.”

“How am I going to tell him about you?” Felicity sighed into the wind, her hand resting on her belly.

 

“Hey John,” Oliver said distractedly as he ran his hand over his mouth. He was sitting in Felicity’s chair down in the lair when Diggle descended the metal stairs to come to stand in front of him, arms crossed. 

“What’s on your mind,” He asked leaning up against one of Felicity’s work tables, “You look a million miles away.”

Oliver glanced up at him, sighing and leaning back in the chair, “It’s Felicity.”

John furrowed his brows, “She’s okay, isn’t she?”

“I don’t know,” Oliver spun slightly in the chair, his face worried.

Digg raised his eyebrows, “What do you mean you don’t know? You live with her, Man.”

He sighed, “I know and normally I know what’s up even if she doesn’t feel inclined to tell me, which has happened but, she’s been acting so odd these past few weeks.” Oliver shook his head, “Have you noticed anything weird?”

The other man tilted his head, “Well, now that you mention it, she has acted kind of skittish lately and more scatterbrained than usual.”

“See,” Oliver frowned, “I know she’s been busy at work and with stuff here but not any more than normal.”

“Why don’t you just ask her what’s wrong?” 

Oliver huffed, “Do you remember when Felicity had the flu?” At Digg’s nod, he continued, “Well, it started with me noticing she was acting cranky, so I asked her what was wrong. She nearly bit my head off, saying that I didn’t trust her judgment about her health and told me if I ever made an assumption again, I would be sleeping at your house for the foreseeable future.”

John's mouth twitched, “Yeah, but didn’t she apologize after the fact?”

“She did, and I know that other stuff was just the fever talking but I don’t want to take any chances this time around.”

The two men sat in quiet, thinking about their blonde IT girl.

Oliver nodded slowly, “Yeah, I think I’ll just wait and let Felicity tell me if anything’s wrong. It’s probably that time of the month if you know what I mean.”

Diggle gave Oliver a sympathetic look. They both had been on the receiving end of their wives’ wrath during that time. In fact, they both have gotten kicked out of their houses and had to crash at the others. From experience, it was best not to say anything out of the ordinary and bring home lots of chocolate.

Dig gave Oliver a slap on the back, “Alright, man. I’m going to go train. You coming?”

Oliver hummed, “No, you go on. I’ll join you later.”

He nodded and walked over to the punching bag.

Biting his lip, Oliver spun slightly in Felicity’s chair, trying to remove the worry that he couldn’t seem to shake.  
He couldn’t help it, he really couldn’t. No matter how much she assured him that she would never withhold information about her health, he would never be able to not worry about his wife. She was his whole world. He didn’t know what he would do if something happened to her, never mind something permanently happening to her. Actually, he did know. He would be shooting arrows in all of the street thugs, regardless of what they did or didn’t do and they would be kill shots.

It scared him to know that he relied so heavily on her to keep him sane. It scared him to know that she had the power to crush him. He was literally putty in her hands, not that she would ever do anything to intentionally hurt him, but that fear was still there. She was his saving grace and he couldn’t live without her. He loved her so much it hurt. 

Oliver rubbed his hands over his face. Felicity probably just had a cold and he knew it was getting close for her period to start, so that must be it.

Yeah, she was fine.

 

Jitters was her favorite coffee spot, it even trumped Starbucks. Coffee was the gateway into a fantastic day, so she chose her coffee spots very carefully. When she found out that being pregnant meant no caffeine which meant no coffee, she was absolutely and utterly devastated…for about 10 minutes, then she went back to obsessing over everything she had probably been doing wrong while she was pregnant-yeah, she didn’t know she was pregnant during that time, but still! 

Then she felt a brief moment of loss when she discovered that even smelling the heavenly stuff made her want to puke but seeing as how it made her want to puke, she didn’t dwell too much on it. However, it was a happy surprise that during her usual morning meeting she found that she wasn’t trying to tamp down nausea from smelling her employees’ coffee, instead, it smelt just as heavenly as she remembered it. 

So, it was with a grateful heart that when Felicity strode into Jitters, the strong smell that hit her like a tidal wave did not make her want to run to the nearest bathroom. It was the same delightful smell that lifted life’s burdens.

She spotted her handsome husband sitting at their usual table. Jitters was one of their go-to spots if a day was stressing them out and they just needed a good talk and some coffee. They did this quite often so it didn’t surprise her when she got a text from Oliver saying, “At Jitters” which really meant “Honey, I need a break from dealing with boring legal stuff and I need to see you to either tell you all about it or to talk about something totally different to get my mind off it. I love you so much. See you soon.” 

Felicity was a pro at reading ‘Oliver Code’.

It wasn’t until she was halfway there that it dawned on her that when she didn’t get any coffee, from her favorite coffee house, no less, Oliver would definitely realize something was up (Although at the rate he seemed to be going these days, he might not pick it up.)

She still wasn’t sure what she was going to do when Oliver went to order their usual. Felicity guessed she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.

Oliver stood up when he caught sight of her coming towards the table, “You are a sight for sore eyes. I needed a break from being Mayor.”

He gave her a sound kiss but kept it brief because well, they were in public.

Felicity slid into her chair as Oliver did the same, “You mean, you needed a break from the people who like to butt-heads with you.”

“Maybe I just wanted to see my beautiful wife,” His lips quirked up.

She pointed her finger at him, “Oh, you’re good. Definitely scoring those husband points.”

This time Oliver full out grinned. 

Felicity soaked in the sight of his care-free behavior knowing she would never tire of seeing his happy smile.   
Too often did he wear the weight of the world on his shoulders and it broke her heart to see but he had learned to share the burden and for that, she was proud. She knew how hard it was for Oliver to involve people in what he deemed was ‘his problems’ but he had come to learn that it was the team’s problems. He didn’t have to do it alone.

Oliver’s eyes sparkled as he reached across the table and caught her hand, “What are looking at?”

“Just you,” She gave him a soft smile.

“I love you so much,” He pulled her left hand to his lips and kissed her wedding rings. 

Felicity tried her best not to melt at the sight. There was something about him kissing her wedding rings that made her swoon. She swears he does it on purpose.

Oliver scooted his chair back, sliding out. He leaned over to give Felicity a kiss on the cheek, “I’ll go order. Your usual?”

She froze. How is it that every time an opportunity to tell Oliver about the baby presented itself, she floundered?

Felicity gave a short nod, letting out a breath when Oliver turned around to get in line. What was she thinking? Oliver would know something was up if she didn’t take a sip of her double shot expresso within five minutes after he handed it to her. 

She bit her lip. Maybe she should just try and make the best of this. Felicity wasn’t sure about letting him find out in a crowded coffee shop but, at this point, she’d take what she could get.

Now she actually had to come up with some semblance of a plan before Oliver came back. He would expect her to drink the coffee like one does when you get a perfectly good cup of coffee but instead of trying to dodge around drinking her expresso like she was originally thinking but refuse it outright maybe he would figure it out if she kept him guessing as she gave him little hints. 

Felicity tapped her fingertips on her lips as she watched Oliver order their coffees out of the corner of her eye. She nodded slowly, yeah, this could potentially work.

Oliver picked up their drinks and Felicity quickly diverted her gaze, pulling her hands down. She bit her lip and started toying with her wedding bands.

“One double shot expresso for you,” Oliver sat the cup down in front of her, “And one regular black coffee for me.”

He slid back into his seat and took an experimental sip of coffee, taking his time to savor the flavor. Felicity watched longingly. How she wished she could do the same but her ‘condition’ prevented. As soon as the kid was weaned, she would be drinking a gallon a day to make up for the 8+ months of being caffeine free. This kid was already so loved for her to be sacrificing her precious coffee.

Felicity wrapped her hands around the warm mug and fixed her eyes on Oliver.

“Aren’t you going to try it?” He asked raising an eyebrow. 

She held back a sigh, how is it that he immediately notices if she doesn’t take a sip of her coffee but doesn’t realize what she’s been trying to tell him for weeks now? At least, so far, it was going as planned. 

“I can’t,” She stated simply.

Oliver looked at her skeptically, “Why not?”

Felicity shook her head, fighting back a smile, “I can’t drink caffeine.”

Now he was really looking at her like she had lost her mind, “You can’t drink caffeine? Who are you and what have you done with my wife?”

She rolled her eyes, “Nothing is wrong with me. I’m just not drinking caffeine for a while. That’s all.”

“You aren’t drinking caffeine for a while,” Oliver stated, eyebrows raised, “Felicity, you literally can’t live without the stuff. What’s made you stop?”

Felicity slid her wedding band up and down her finger nervously, “Oliver, why would a woman stop drinking caffeine?”

He looked at her, dumbfounded, “Are you going on a diet? I mean you look great. You certainly don’t need to.”

Felicity sucked in a deep breath, because seriously? How long was it going to take?

Just as she was about to say something that would really make him understand, a voice at her elbow interrupted.

“Hey, guys! Long time, no see!”

Felicity closed her eyes in frustration. 

She was going to kill Cisco.

She opened her eyes to see Oliver shaking hands with him and Barry. Felicity hadn’t known they were in town and she had no idea why they were there but frankly, she didn’t care. There could be a gang of Meta-humans running around Star City and she wouldn’t care, at least not until Oliver knew that she was having a baby.

Barry smiled that big goofy smile of his in her direction and she did her best not to glower, “Hey Felicity! We were hoping to see you while we were in town.”

Felicity put on a bright smile, “Well, you’ve seen us! I’m sure you have really important things to do. It’s a shame you can’t stay.”

Oliver looked at her strangely, but Cisco and Barry didn’t seem to notice her overly excited tone because Cisco started pulling up a chair, “We have time besides I want to hear about those new arrows you were working on.”

She looked at Cisco in exhausted disbelief. Apparently, he didn’t know how to take a hint. 

She propped her chin up with her hands, fighting the urge to strangle Cisco or Barry…or quite possibly both of them. 

Oliver shot her another confused glance while he talked to their friends, “Yeah, you’re welcome to sit with us. Are you in town for,” He paused to clear his throat, “secret business.”

The conversation faded as Felicity sighed and thought about all the possibilities of staging a city emergency and convincing Oliver to stay with her while Barry and Cisco save the day leaving them alone so that she could finally tell Oliver he was going to be a father. 

She sighed again while she watched their animated conversation in exasperation.

At this point, Felicity was resigned to the fact that she may never actually get to tell Oliver that she was pregnant. She guessed he’d figure it out when she started to develop a baby bump and Thea started buying every baby product she could find.

 

The young blonde sighed as she walked down the street. Her feet were killing her from the 3-inch stilettos she had worn that day and her shoulders hurt from a day of stress.

She was on her way to the bar that she knew he would be at. She knew she had to tell him before it got much later, and she started to develop a baby bump.

Of course, he needed to know. He was the father after all and even though he did have the nerve to knock her up, he deserved to know.

They would have to become more mature. Her especially because it was her job to make sure the kid grew up to be the best person he or she could possibly be.

She placed a hand on her midsection and sighed. More than once she wished that she hadn’t been so careless as to get pregnant, even if the father was the love her life, because heaven knows that they can barely afford an apartment let alone a child.

Not to say that she didn’t love her baby, no, she loved it so much it hurt. She just wanted the best for any child she would bring into the world like most mothers. She wanted her kid to grow up care-free without having to worry about where their next meal would come from or being able to have an allowance and not having to sacrifice it because that money was needed to pay rent.

She stopped on the sidewalk as people bustled by and looked across the street, into the window of the bar.   
She could see his dark hair as he tipped his head back to drown the shot of what was most likely whiskey.

He was laughing with his friends. She bit her lip. This news was going to change their lives and he was going to have to stop drinking so much. She didn’t mind it when they got together but she wasn’t pregnant then.

She was determined to make this the best life she could possibly give a child.

Taking a deep breath, she ran across the busy street and came to a stop in front of the glass door. She smoothed down her dress and pushed open the door, the bell ringing.

Smiling, he turned his head.

She took a step into the bar.

Here goes nothing.

 

Thea, Sara, and Laurel exchanged amused glances as Felicity got done ranting on how Barry and Cisco just had to come to Star City and ruin her fourth plan to give Oliver their happy news.

“Please tell me you didn’t actually kill Cisco or Barry. That would be difficult to explain to Caitlin, Iris, and Harry,” Laurel crossed her arms.

Felicity stopped mid-pace, rolling her eyes, “No, I didn’t kill them, but, I sure felt like it.”

Sara nodded, grinning, “For one person you sure have had a lot of bad timing.”

“Thanks, Sara,” Felicity glared and resumed pacing, “Well, does anyone have any ideas? I’m all ears.”

“Hold a press conference. Ollie would definitely find out then no matter who’s in town. Of course, everyone and their brother will find out too but, at the rate you’re going, this may be your only hope,” Thea shrugged her shoulders.

Felicity threw up her hands, “NO! I will tell Oliver myself no matter how long it takes! Unless it takes longer than 7ish months, then the baby will tell him.”

Later that night, Felicity sat on her and Oliver’s bed and looked at a faded picture. Oliver was in the shower, so she was alone for the time being as she ran her finger down the tattered edge of the photograph.

She looked at the man’s face. She had always wondered, if he looked so happy here, then why did he leave?

Although she had never heard it said out loud, she knew that ultimately, she was the reason. Not her exactly but, the fact that she was a baby, that’s what made him leave.

She hadn’t heard the story until she was packing for college and stumbled across the photo in the depths of a closet. She had asked for the story and instead of it being told with bittersweet nostalgia, it was told with tiredness and reluctance.

Felicity never asked for any stories involving him again. It just brought up hurt feelings.

A tear escaped her eye as she studied the faded picture with sadness. She ran her fingertips over the youthful faces of times long ago.

The couple smiled happily, if not tiredly and stressed. Their background, an old bar full of memories, now painful to think about. 

Their faces held hope and promise for the future. 

 

Her emerald green high heels clicked as she walked across the wooden floor of the old bar. Old time blues filled the room and she was surrounded by the smell of cigarette smoke and beer. This was the bar that they met in, so it was only appropriate that she would be giving him this news here.

“Hello, my love,” His rich voice surrounded her, and she gave a small smile.

She fiddled with her purse straps, “I’ve got something I need to tell you.”

“Of course,” He led her over to a table in the corner and pulled out a chair for her, “What is it?”

She sat down and captured his hand from across the table, “It’s rather unexpected and I certainly didn’t mean for it to happen but…I’m pregnant.”

He looked at her in shock, “Pregnant? As in we’re having a baby?”

The blonde nodded, “I know this wasn’t planned and I know that we’re barely scraping by with just the two of us let alone having a child to take care of but, I think we can do it.”

Noah smiled, his eyes sparkling, “I think it’s wonderful! Let’s go celebrate!”

He pulled her from the table as he led them to the other guys who were smoking and laughing by the bar, “Hey guys! Guess what!? Donna’s pregnant!”

Donna watched as the men laughed in surprise, holding up their glasses and calling out congratulations.

Noah was swept up in the midst, shaking hands with everyone as people approached her to give her hugs.

Bernie, the bartender/owner of the bar took out an old-fashioned camera from under the counter, “You two kids get together. Let me take your picture.”

Noah and Donna wrapped themselves around each other. The flash went off.

This was the start of something beautiful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this chapter was a little random. I've never written 'flash-backs' like that before but, there it is. I actually hadn't planned on doing it. It sort of just took on a mind of it's own. I'm blaming 'This Is Us'. I've been re-watching all of the episodes to get ready for season 3! Which premiered tonight!!!!! If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it!
> 
> Back to the point, I hope you enjoyed my little leap of faith. Please tell me what you thought of it. I actually had a lot more fun than I expected.
> 
> Also, I know I probably portrayed Noah Kuttler, Felicity' dad, a little different than the show but since we don't know too much about hime I thought I could take a little liberty.
> 
> Another thing I've been meaning to address was that I have absolutly no medical experience so all of Felicity' pregnancy symptoms are based on what I've read or seen on TV.
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Questions, comments, concerns? Leave a review! They make me happy.
> 
> Love Freckles


	5. Bad Karma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The universe hates her. How is it that she manages to tell all of Team Arrow (including Barry and Cisco) that she was pregnant but her husband still doesn't know?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry it's taken me so long to update. I was having trouble to get the words flowing. Only one more chapter after this one and I'm finished! Please let me know if there is some story you'd like to see from me. I was thinking maybe I could make a companion piece to this one. Maybe when Felicity goes into labor or Oliver's in-depth thoughts about what having a child means to him. Anyways, let me know and as always, thank you so much for the reviews. They make me so happy!
> 
> Again, I have no medical experience so everything in this chapter is based on what I've read or seen but it sounded good so...
> 
> Happy reading!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything Arrow related.

“Relax, everything’s going to be fine,” Thea glanced up from reading emails on her phone.

Felicity paced up and down the length of the empty waiting room.

“Seriously, you’re making me nervous and I’m just along for emotional support,” Laurel said as she flipped a page of a magazine entitled Today’s Parent that she was skimming through.

Felicity ignored her and kept pacing. She had decided that she needed to go and get an ultrasound to actually confirm her pregnancy and make sure everything was okay with the baby. Yeah, the sticks were 99% right and she was pretty darn positive that she was pregnant because there was no way she was making up all those symptoms but still. It needed to happen sooner or later.

But could you imagine her going in there and finding out that the five pregnancy tests were wrong, and she had been freaking out for nothing! That would be a nightmare.

The only upside to that scenario would be that at least she hadn’t managed to tell Oliver yet.

Because she wanted to keep this secret under wraps until she told Oliver (and however long they could keep it quiet after) she used her last name as leverage to get the doctor’s office to herself and because of doctor/patient confidentiality she knew the nurses and doctors wouldn’t blab, no matter how much they wanted too.

Sara sighed. She was stretched out on a chair looking more bored than Felicity thought possible as she tilted her head to look at something in a magazine called Sensitive Midwifery Magazine. 

“’Taking deep, calming breaths will decrease the pain of natural childbirth by 50%!’,” She read in an overly sarcastic voice, scoffing, “Try telling that to a woman who’s actively pushing an 8-pound human being out of a hole that is significantly smaller.”

Sara skimmed the page with her eyes as she mused, “Who even wrote this? Obviously, someone who doesn’t know anything.”

She tossed the magazine to the side and picked up another one entitled Empowering Birth, “Don’t they have something other than overly positive magazines about giving birth?”

“If you’re so upset about the reading choices then bring something else next time,” Thea uncrossed her legs then crossed them again, switching legs.

“Hey, did you guys know that in Soviet Russia they give out awards to mothers who have given birth and raised 7 kids,” Laurel mused, ingnoring Sara’s boredom.

Felicity halted her pacing and chewed on her lip, “I can guarantee you that I will never be getting an award for raising 7 children. Ever. I can barely handle one and it’s not even born yet!”

Thea smirked, “I’ll remind you of that when you accidentally get pregnant for the 7th time.”

“Shut up,” Felicity glared.

At that moment the obstetrician herself walked out. Felicity had done some digging and found the doctor that had delivered Oliver and Thea.

She was in semi-retirement, but she was still the best obstetrician in the city, besides, Felicity thought it would be a sweet idea if the doctor that delivered the first batch of Queen children delivered the second batch.

Thea got up and grinned, “Dr. Brooks, I can’t believe it.”

The older lady gave her a hug, “Look at you, all grown up. The last time I saw you was, oh, ten years ago for that maternity ward auction,” She rubbed Thea’s back, “I know it was a while ago but, I’m so sorry about your mother and I’m so sorry that I couldn’t make the funeral. We became good friends during her pregnancy with Oliver.”

Dr. Brooks pulled back and put her hands in her lab coat, turning to smile at Felicity, “So, I presume you are the mother-to-be,” She offered a hand, “I’m Dr. Karen Brooks and I’m pleased to meet the wife of that stubborn little boy I delivered years ago.”

Felicity laughed and took the doctors hand, “Felicity Queen. So, Oliver was stubborn right out of the womb? Why am I not surprised? Anyways, thank you for agreeing to see me such short notice and in secrecy.” 

“It’s no problem,” Dr. Brooks’ eyes twinkled, “I am honored that you chose me to take care of you and your child when the time comes. It will be such a privilege to deliver another Queen baby.”

She walked towards the door that led to the examination rooms, “Why don’t you follow me, and we’ll take a look at baby. Now, where’s Oliver? I thought he would be here.”

Laurel snickered, “Yeah, he’d love to be here except he doesn’t know that Felicity’s here. She hasn’t told him yet.”

Felicity blushed bright red. She couldn’t help the fact that the universe seemed dead set on ruining her plans.

Instead of looking at her condescendingly, Dr. Brooks laughed, “Don’t be embarrassed, dear. A lot of mothers come through here before telling their husbands. While it’s exciting, it’s an intimidating thing to do. Besides, it’s nice to have an ultrasound photo to show off when you tell him.”

Felicity followed Dr. Brooks down a labyrinth of pristine white hallways with Thea, Laurel, and Sara trailing behind. She knew the white walls were supposed to give a comforting, clean feel but all Felicity could think about was of a horror movie she had watched once that was filled with white hallways.

The other thing she thought about was how pleased she was with herself for being able to keep it together in front of Dr. Brooks and not going off on a completely non-relevant rant about pineapples or something. 

She needed to show off her best behavior because, in less than a year, this woman would be pulling a child from you know where and Felicity had a feeling she would probably be in a less than pleasant state seeing as how she would be in pain. She was determined to make the best impression she could before she lost all of her dignity in front of Dr. Brooks.

They entered an examination room that fit all of them comfortably, but the girls crowded around the bed near the monitor that Felicity assumed would show the ultrasound.

“Alright, Mrs. Queen, hop up on the bed and lie back and if you could, lift up your shirt please,” Dr. Brooks nodded towards the bed as she put on gloves.

“Just call me Felicity,” She said as she rolled up her shirt. 

Felicity was glad that she had opted for a skirt and shirt today instead of her usual dress. She had a feeling that would be more awkward, and cold because it was freezing in here!

Well, it turns out that the blue stuff that was squirted on her belly was even colder. That felt like it was negative 10 degrees. Did they want the baby to get frostbite?

“Let’s make sure a baby’s in here,” Dr. Brooks moved a wand around on her lower stomach, but Felicity barely acknowledged the feeling as she glued her eyes onto the grainy picture on the screen.

Sara, Thea, and Laurel were practically climbing down the doctor’s back as they each tried to get a look at the same thing Felicity was looking for.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Dr. Brooks pointed at a curled up dark blob, “Yeah, you’re definitely pregnant. There’s your baby. Let me zoom in.”

It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop as tiny arms and legs came into view. Dr. Brooks moved the wand around some more and a fast thudding sound echoed throughout the room.

“Is that…Is that what I think it is?” Felicity asked, tears springing into her eyes.

Dr. Brooks smiled and nodded, “That’s your baby’s heartbeat.”

“Is it supposed to be that fast?” Thea asked in wonder.

Felicity mentally thanked her. She had wanted to ask the same question, but she couldn’t manage to get the question out. She was too mesmerized by the little person that was currently resting inside her. Hearing her baby and seeing its little limbs made everything so much more real.

“I know it seems fast, but this is the perfect heartbeat and judging by how fast it is, the features of the baby and the information you recorded in the waiting room, I’d say you’re about 12 weeks. Right at three months,” Dr. Brooks paused the movement right at the baby’s face.

“Wow…” Felicity, Sara, Thea, and Laurel breathed out in unison as they stared at the screen in amazement.

“It’s incredible, isn’t it,” Dr. Brooks mused, “I’ll get you pictures, and I’ll draw your blood then we’ll talk about what you can expect during this pregnancy including diet and prenatal vitamins.”

Felicity barely heard the ‘draw your blood’ part but even if she was actually processing the information she didn’t think she could bring herself to care because she had just fallen head-over-heads with the cutest little face she thought she’d ever seen.

 

 

“It’s a girl and her name will be Thea,” Thea stated matter-of-factly as the girls walked down the busy sidewalks of Star City.

“Or maybe it’s a Sara,” Sara smiled happily as she locked arms with Thea.

“I think it’s going to be a little Laurel,” Laurel teased.

Sara looked at Felicity who was wondering aimlessly beside them with a dreamy look on her face, “What do you think? Boy or girl?”

Felicity sighed contently, “I don’t care. As long as he or she is healthy, but I think it would be nice to have a little boy with Oliver’s blue eyes. A big brother for any other children we might have.”

Laurel, Thea, and Sara looked at each other in amusement.

“She’s a goner,” Thea whispered to the others with a grin.

The girls continued chatting about baby things as Felicity walked in silence thinking about everything that had transpired that morning.

Something about hearing and seeing the baby inside her made everything so real especially getting an official due date which was November 2nd, which was crazy and didn’t seem that far away.

Part of her had been nervous that maybe she wasn’t pregnant, and all the symptoms were in her head, so she was relieved when Dr. Brooks did an ultrasound and she actually got to see proof that yes, she was pregnant.

Carrying around the ultrasound pictures in her purse seemed so surreal. She was itching to pull them out and stare at them some more, but she didn’t want anyone to accidentally see them. It was funny how a little dark blob was so captivating.

Now more than ever she wanted Oliver to know. She was starting to feel guilty that she had known for a few weeks now and he had no clue besides she was already 3 months along which she was not expecting. She would be out of her first trimester in a week which seemed even crazier and before too long, she’d be showing. 

Not that it was for her lack of trying. It was Oliver’s lack of paying attention so, she couldn’t feel too guilty.

She wanted him to share in this exciting news, so they could talk and start making plans and do all the cheesy things expecting parents do. She had to do this soon and she was not going to let anyone or anything stand in her way again, especially Roy and Cisco.

“Girls,” Felicity spoke up, drawing their attention, “I have to tell Oliver. Tonight.”

 

 

Felicity sighed as she dropped her purse beside her chair before sitting down. It had been a long, emotionally exciting day and she was feeling a little overwhelmed with all the information she had been given today and with the prospect of finally telling Oliver tonight.

They were hoping to get a hit on Avery Banks, the newest baddie in the city. They’d been trying to catch him for a while now, but he was proving to be very elusive however their patience might be paying off tonight because they finally got some intel that could bring his whole trafficking ring down.

After they caught Banks and the team got back, hopefully in one piece, then Felicity would tell him. About the baby. She felt like hyperventilating just thinking about it. She had mixed emotions about telling him and those emotions were heightened by pregnancy hormones. She was excited to tell him but at the same time, she was worried about how he might take it. 

I mean, she did have a valid reason to worry because he didn’t even want to be together because he was worried his enemies might hurt her. Imagine what he might start panicking about when there was a helpless child to protect.

“Has anything showed up on your searches?” Thea asked as she spun around in her chair.

Felicity pulled herself up to one of the computers and typed in the password. She had set up alerts to ring if there was anything suspicious but there was no harm in double checking.

She scrolled through the algorithm she had built to store the information, “No, doesn’t look like anything yet, but he wasn’t supposed to move until nine so…that gives us about an hour.”

“I swear if this guy doesn’t make a move tonight, I’m gonna lose it,” Sara declared, watching surveillance on one of the computers.

Felicity rubbed her forehead, “The line forms behind me. I’m exhausted. I don’t think I could handle another all-nighter right now, and,” She dropped her voice, looking around to make sure no one was in the room, “being pregnant makes you super tired and to top it all off, I can’t even have caffeine. That’s how I function if I don’t have more than six hours of sleep a night but currently I’m getting no sleep and growing a baby with no caffeine. None. For six months. Six!”

Laurel looked at her sympathetically, “Don’t worry Felicity. We’ll do our best to catch him tonight and we’ll try to help you out in the coming months, so you can get more rest.”

“Thanks, Laurel,” Felicity smiled wanly, “Although, once I tell Oliver, I’ve got a feeling he’s going to try to put me on bed rest and ban me from the team.”

Sara smirked, “He can’t kick you off the team. We need you. Our survival depends on it, so we’ll be there to beat him up if he tries anything. Besides, we would miss you.” 

“And you are going to tell Oliver tonight,” Thea told her sternly with a ‘you better’ look.

At that moment the boys came from the workout room in the back, including Barry and Cisco.

“Hey, guys! What are you two doing here?” Thea asked in surprise when the Central City superheroes walked over.

It surprised Felicity too because she thought they were here for actual legal CSI work, not illegal vigilantism. 

She also thought that they were going back home today. Apparently not.

Barry nodded towards Oliver, “Oliver asked us if we wanted to help catch your guy and of course, we said yes. There was nothing pressing in Central City and you guys come to help us when we need it so here we are!”

Felicity nodded. It was always good to have extra people watching backs, so she was grateful that they agreed to help but at the same time, she was still a little mad that Cisco ruined her plans and that Barry would not stop talking.

The conversation faded in the background as she watched Oliver talking to everyone and every time he would look her in the eye, those ultrasound pictures seemed to scream at her from her purse. 

The more and more she watched Oliver laugh and smile, she kept getting this urge to go ahead and tell him she was pregnant right then. 

“Hey honey, what’s on your mind? You aren’t saying much,” Oliver’s concerned voice cut through her haze.

“Uh,” She hesitated, looking like a deer-in-the-head light.

She just had to tell him. She couldn’t wait one second longer.

Now, she just had to manage getting everyone to leave the room naturally without any questions being asked. A piece of cake.

Step number one: Recruit the girls.

At this point, everyone was looking at her, waiting for an answer, “Actually, I was thinking that Thea,” Felicity gave her a meaningful look, “Needed to take Roy to the club because she needed his opinion on a new brand of Tequila before it was served tonight.”

Thea gave her a very confused look, “No I don’t-” 

“Yes, remember. You told me,” Felicity glared as meaningfully as she could and gave a little nod towards Oliver as she talked over her.

Thea’s mouth opened in a small ‘Oh’, her face lighting up in realization.

Felicity saw Sara and Laurel’s confused looks morph into understanding as well, which was a relief because she didn’t know if she could convey it to them too.

Thea sprung into action and pulled on a confused Roy’s arm, “Yep, I’m glad Felicity reminded me. I ordered it a while ago, but I want you to test it out before we sell it tonight…”

Her voice faded as she drug Roy up the metal stairs. 

One oblivious person down, three to go.

There was silence before Felicity cleared her throat and signaled with her eyes that Laurel and Sara needed to get Digg, Cisco, and Barry out of there. She didn’t care how. She just wanted them out for like, a few minutes, then everyone could come back in to celebrate. A few minutes. That’s all she wanted.

Laurel grabbed a pair of sunglasses that were conveniently sitting on one of the tables, “Hey! Felicity made these glasses to where you can look at the clouds and the sun to see what they’re made out of. You need to try them. Come on we’ll take you.”

Sara was trying to get them to move towards the stairs and Diggle stopped, putting up a hand, “Hold on, wait. What are you talking about? First off, I don’t remember Felicity working on or talking about anything like this. Secondly, it’s dark outside.”

Barry nodded, “And why would we want to see what the sun is made out of? I already know.”

Felicity risked a glance at Oliver. One, to avoid facepalming and two, to try and figure out what he was thinking. He stood there looking so lost, it was almost funny.

She swung her gaze back to the conversation that was playing out in front of her and was very interested to see how the Lances were going to salvage this poor attempt at getting the boys to leave.

“Because and It works on the moon and the stars too,” Sara supplied, sounding unsure herself as she practically pushed all three of them up the stairs.

Laurel followed them, “Yeah, it does. Isn’t that so cool.”

Their voices cut off as the steel door swung shut with a clang.

“What just happened?” Oliver asked bewildered in the suddenly silent bunker.

For her part, Felicity was actually shocked that that had worked (for the most part) and nothing had stood in the way. She couldn’t believe Oliver was by himself with nothing to distract him. Finally! It was about time!

She stood up and smoothed her skirt, “Oliver, I actually have something for you.”

He looked at her with an eyebrow raised, “Is this some kind of surprise date?”

“Kind of,” Felicity bit her lip, resting her hands on Oliver’s broad chest and looking up through her eyelashes at him.

He smiled softly and cupped her face, “I love being alone with you. No matter how oddly it’s done.”

She reached up on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss, keeping it shallow so they didn’t get carried which had happened more than once, obviously. That baby didn’t just magically appear in her womb.

Felicity pulled back and licked her lips. Here goes, “Oliver, honey. In a few short months-” 

And there went her alarms that she set up to alert her if Avery Banks made a move. Couldn’t he have waited like one more minute?! She had been so close. Closer than the last four times.

Oliver moved over to the computers, “Felicity, call the team. We need to move out now.”

He turned and walked back to her to give her a peck on the lips, “I’m sorry, Felicity. We’ll have another date night as soon as we catch this guy, okay,” Then he hurried off to go suit up.

She texted the girls that they could bring back their charges and explained that she didn’t get to tell him because of those stupid alarms. The last thing she needed was for them to come barreling down the steps shouting congratulations.

 

“So far, so good. The thermals in the building show a lot of bodies but, they don’t look like guards,” Felicity told the team as they prepared to infiltrate the warehouse that had lots of evidence to back-up the confirmation that they had finally found Banks’ operations.

As soon as everyone had gotten back to the bunker, they all suited up as fast as they could and teamed up to gather and confirm intel. Thankfully, no one had time to ask questions about why they had been forced from the bunker only to be urgently called back. 

“Overwatch, we’re in position to infiltrate the building,” Oliver’s low modulated voice came through the comms.

Felicity checked her computers, clucking when she found a hidden laser grid, “Arsenal, you’re about to run into lasers, so if I were you, I’d stop and wait for me to bring them down. I’d hate for you to lose a leg, or worse.”

Felicity could practically see Thea reaching out and yanking him by the hood as he stopped abruptly, “Thanks Blondie. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

She stretched her neck as her fingers flew over the keyboard, “Probably lose a leg or worse. And the same goes for the rest of you. Alright, you’re all good to go. There are a few guards at each entrance, but they shouldn’t be a problem, however, they are armed.”

Felicity watched as her team entered the building and started taking out guards. She was always on pins and needles when she watched the cameras and often times she had to mute her end of the comms, so they wouldn’t hear her commentating nervously in the background or panicking or hyperventilating or doing anything that could cause a distraction. 

That only really ever happened when it was an intense fight and Oliver or anyone else was by themselves or if the battle was looking like they were losing, which sucked but didn’t happen too often.

However, more than once, she had seen one of them get hurt and the worrying never got easier. It just made her realize that no matter how many wins they had, none of them were immortal. She didn’t know how many times she had anxiously awaited the team’s arrival, ready to asses and patch up a wound and it was normally Oliver who was hurt.

It was hard to send them out there every night with uncertainty that they would make it back all in one piece, but she knew how much good they were doing and how much Star City needed hooded heroes. So, no matter the personal toll, they all continued to risk their lives night after night for their city’s people.

Oliver swung his bow around and took out a guard then shot another one with a tranq arrow (that she designed) as Barry zoomed around the room tying all of the guards up in a pretty bow for SCPD to collect.

She watched the others do the same thing on all different sides of the warehouse and she admired the way they effortlessly took down the guards but that didn’t mean she wasn’t on the edge of her seat the whole time as she desperately searched to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.

It was up to her to bring them all back home and in one piece and it was up to them to not take unnecessary risks because then they would witness her loud voice as she patched up whatever injury they had obtained, assuming that they were conscious, of course.

Finally, Team Arrow and its honorary members neutralized the men who were standing watch and Felicity checked her thermal prints again, just to make sure.

“From what I’m seeing, there are no guards in the room with whom I’m assuming are the kidnapped children. You’re good to go but please, still be cautious because Bank’s is smart.”

“We always are but he’s nowhere near as smart as you,” Felicity could hear the fond smile in his low arrow voice that normally inflicted fear but with her, it was all just love.

She could hear Cisco and Roy mutter ‘Get a room’ under their breaths in unison and she rolled her eyes. Felicity was used to these comments by now and so was Oliver and the rest of the team.

She sucked in a breath and tears pricked her eyes as the doors were kicked open and the sight of frightened, dirty children came into view.

There had to be at least fifty of them and guessing by the missing child reports, they were anywhere from several months to twelve.

She heard the whole team slip curse words under their breaths at the people who could ever do such a thing as they hurried to reassure the kids that they were there to help, and that they weren’t going to hurt them.

Sara squatted down next to a group of children who looked about four or five. She put her arms out in a welcoming manner and smiled invitingly and after hesitating, the kids threw themselves into her arms, crying their little eyes out.

Laurel was doing the same with a gaggle of the older children. It took a little while longer to get them to respond but eventually, someone fell into her arms and the rest followed suit.

Roy, Thea, and Diggle had their arms full of sobbing toddlers who were shaking and had no idea what was going on.

Barry and Cisco were seeking out the kids who were by themselves. Cisco was hugging a few kids who looked like they were 7, 8 or 9. Barry was doing the same thing except he had a very young toddler in his arms.

Oliver on the other hand went over to a darker part of the room and Felicity drew in a horrified breath and she didn’t even try to stop from crying. There were ten newborns packed in three rudely looking cribs.

“Oh my God, Oliver…” She breathed out shakily through her sobs.

He reached down into one of the cribs and picked up two shivering infants.

“Felicity, I can’t hold them all,” He said faintly as he gingerly tried to hold them securely.

Felicity couldn’t stop crying and that was partly because of hormones but mostly because she was expecting her own child and she couldn’t imagine what the parents of those babies must be feeling. They were probably out of their minds with worry. Just the thought of someone taking her child was unfathomable and it wasn’t even born yet.

“Felicity, honey,” Came Oliver’s concerned voice, “Are you alright?”

She hiccupped. She must have really sounded distraught for him to ask her that when there were kids to be saved and Avery Banks still to catch. 

Felicity sniffed and tried to pull herself together, “Yeah, I’m okay, just the thought of all those kids and those babies…Oh, Oliver.”

She trailed off, wiping her eyes as she looked at those poor shivering infants in those dirty cribs and she just wanted to gather them up in her arms and rock them, “Can you send Barry to come to get me. I need to be there. I need to hold those children.”

Oliver was silent before he said grimly, “I don’t want you here. Bank’s is still around here somewhere and it’s dirty and I just don’t want you here. Call Lance and get SCPD down here. They’ll be able to help.”

Felicity thought about protesting because she’s done multiple field ops with the team albeit it took a lot of convincing for Oliver to let her come, even before they were together, but she decided against it. 

One, because she was too tired to put up an argument, two, she was pregnant and who knew what kind of diseases she might contract not to mention that Oliver was right, and they still weren’t totally safe and three, because she knew that one of the main reasons he didn’t want her there was because of the cruelty.

He always tried to protect her as much as possible from the evils of the world and while they both knew that she couldn’t do this job without seeing things worse than nightmares, Oliver still tried his best to shield her from the darkness when she didn’t have to see it. She appreciated it and that was the kind of thing that just proved to her how much he loved her, and she didn’t mind complying once and a while.

“I already did. He should be there any minute now with people to care for the children until they can get them back to their parents. There are ambulances on the way as well to take them to the hospital.”

By now, Oliver had somehow gotten all the babies calmed down and somewhat warmed up since he had taken his undershirt off and laid it over them. 

A few minutes later the police department burst into the warehouse and Team Arrow relinquished their charges into the capable, caring hands of SCPD’s female officers which was a good thing because right at that moment Felicity got facial recognition that Avery Banks was running from the warehouse across the alley.

“Oliver, it’s Banks. He’s on the move heading towards Washington and 5th. You have to catch him,” She said urgently as she pinged his cell phone so she could trace him.

“Do you want me to go?” Barry’s voice came through the comms.

Oliver gave a sharp shake of his head and picked up his bow as he growled, “The rest you stay here. This one’s mine.”

Felicity bit her lip as she watched the black dot moving rapidly with the green dot catching up to it. She understood that Oliver wanted to be the one to catch this guy, but she wished he had taken John or Barry or someone with him but they were already too far ahead for her to tell one of them to go with Oliver. They would never catch up in time except Barry but he was preoccupied with calming down a screaming toddler.

“Oliver, please be careful. I don’t want to have to patch you up tonight,” She told him fearfully as she put a hand on her mid-section.

He was not going to die before she even had a chance to tell him he was going to be a father. He couldn’t. If he did, she would drag him to a Lazarus Pit herself, bring him back, tell him then kill him again.

She didn’t want to raise a child by herself and have to explain to him or her that their father died before he even knew they existed. Felicity wouldn’t allow her children to be cheated out of a wonderful father.

Oliver panted through his comms, “I’ll be fine, Felicity. Stop worrying.”

“I’m serious, Oliver. Don’t you dare take any unnecessary risks,” Felicity gripped the arms of her chair as she watched him catch up to Bank’s and fire an arrow at him.

After a few very tense minutes, Oliver took him down without doing any serious damage to Avery Banks’ person which she knew must have required a lot of self-control from Oliver to not beat him to death for what he did to those helpless children.

Oliver’s famous growl, “You have failed this city,” Came through and Felicity sighed in relief as Lance came running up with more than a few police officers ready to take Banks into custody.

After about a half-hour of helping out the police, Team Arrow split up to do a quick run through of the city on the way home which Felicity wasn’t too happy about, but she also wanted to make sure the city looked somewhat peaceful for tonight, so she didn’t demand that they come back home.

Her nerves were shot, and she just wanted to feel Oliver in her arms and listen to his heartbeat and she wanted to squeeze the girls, Digg and even Roy, Cisco and Barry, even though she was still a little mad at them for interrupting her telling Oliver her news.

She wasn’t a stranger to this stress of keeping them alive and the feeling that she needed to see them and hear them laugh after a long night, especially a night like tonight. She loved doing this, but it still took a toll on her emotionally because that fear that she would lose all of them in a single night and she would be left alone was always in the back of her mind.

And being pregnant didn’t help any. All of her usual emotions that she normally could keep suppressed were all being ramped up to like, a twenty. And seeing those kids and thinking about her own was just…

Felicity sniffed and wiped away the rest of her tears.

“Felicity are you alright?” Oliver asked hesitantly. Great, she left the comms on meaning everyone’s heard her sobbing uncontrollably.

“I’m fine. I just keep thinking about those kids and what their parents are feeling. Not knowing where their baby’s at. I just keep thinking how I would feel if our child was missing,” Felicity’s eyes widened. 

She did not mean for that last part to come out. She certainly didn’t want Oliver to find out she was expecting over comms with everyone listening. That would be horrible.

She bit her lip in anticipation of what Oliver would say. He must have been shocked because there was silence for a long time.

A throat was being cleared, “We would scour the earth for any child of ours until it was found.”

For the thousandth time that night, her eyes filled with tears at his response even if unsure. She could tell he had been caught off guard and she could just imagine Thea, Laurel, and Sara holding their breaths for her.

“How do you feel about us having kids?” She blurted, breaking the awkward silence that had descended over the comms.

What was wrong with her! Why couldn’t she keep her mouth shut for just once? How was it that when she wanted to tell Oliver about the baby she couldn’t manage to get the words out but when she didn’t want too, she couldn’t stop the words from flowing? What kind of karma was this?

It was the torturous kind. That’s what it was.

She could practically feel the others discomfort listening in to this conversation. She and Oliver had had some interesting talks over the comms before with everyone either silently listening or trying not to laugh at them, but she felt like this one would take the cake. 

“Felicity, where is this coming from? I know we all just had a tough night and those kids stirred up some emotions, but don’t you think there’s a better time and place to be discussing this? Not that I don’t want a baby someday but like I said, we can talk about this later,” Oliver sounded confused but he didn’t sound horrified at the prospect of a baby so that was good news cause they were having one whether he was terrified or not. 

Felicity clasped her hands together as a hundred thoughts flashed through her head. Maybe she should just say it. She couldn’t take the suspense anymore and as badly as she wanted it to be special with just her and   
Oliver, she decided it was now or never.

She took a deep breath, “Because we’re having a baby.”

It all happened in slow motion, but it really only lasted a few minutes. 

As soon as Sara realized that Oliver was having technical issues and had obviously not heard the news that Felicity just delivered to everyone but the one person that actually needed to know, she alerted the rest of the team that his comms went out just before Felicity had said anything. 

Sara watched in silent horror as Barry put on that big cheesy smile of his and turned toward Oliver who was messing with his earpiece and Sara assumed that he realized he couldn’t hear anything. Barry opened his mouth to congratulate the unassuming father and Sara feared that perhaps she had been too late as she tackled him.

“Hey, Sara! What on earth-” The speedsters voice was muffled by her gloved hands as Oliver looked at them in disbelief, still miraculously oblivious to the fact that Felicity had just told the entire team over comms that she was pregnant. 

 

“Roy and Cisco, I swear, if you say anything, I will kill you myself,” Thea growled and the boys’ smiles faded.

“But Oliver’s gonna be a da-” Roy cut off when Thea glared at him worthy of Rash-al-gul.

“Shut up. I’m serious.”

Cisco was smart enough to not say anything even though they were both thoroughly confused about what was happening.

Thea was determined to save this situation and she wasn’t going to have them mess up Felicity’s plans again! Although, she wasn’t sure how one person could have this much bad luck.

 

Laurel probably had the easiest at keeping the cat-in-the-bag. She just gave a warning look at Digg and was surprised that he didn’t look surprised. 

His lips quirked up and he nodded at Laurel to let her know that he wouldn’t say anything, and she didn’t have to tackle or yell at him to prevent him from accidentally messing up the situation worse than it already was.

 

For her part, Felicity tried really hard to refrain from cursing. Why did this happen to her? Now, not only did Thea, Sara and Laurel know she was having a baby but so did John, Roy, Cisco, and Barry. She managed to tell all of them but not Oliver! Her husband who deserved to know and be told in a loving manner more than any of them.

She was grateful for the girls’ quick action. Even though, at this point, it was probably easier for one of the boys unknowingly tell Oliver she still wanted to be the one to actually say ‘We’re having a baby’ or something to that effect with him actually being able to hear. She didn’t want him to find out by someone shouting, ‘Congrats on the baby, Oliver.’ 

The team came running down the steps, all of them in silence, confusion radiating off of Roy, Cisco, and Barry. Every once and a while, one of the girls would shoot them a glare to keep them from talking. After a few minutes of busying themselves with putting their gear away and Felicity messing with her computers in awkward silence, Oliver turned around, fully intending to do business.

“Okay, what’s going on around here? What’s with the all the jumpiness and glares?”

Felicity exchanged panicked glances with Laurel, Sara, and Thea. She opened her mouth to say something before one of the boys did, but Digg beat her to it.

“Hey, don’t worry about it, man. I think everyone is just a little shaken from tonight and then when you’re comms went out, we thought something must have happened. That’s all,” He said, somehow convincing Oliver to nod skeptically and drop the subject.

“Well,” Oliver cleared his throat, “If no one has anything else to tell me then I’m going to go get a shower.”

Felicity waited tensely for him to exit the room and when he did, she let out a sigh of relief, her shoulders slumping, the girls mirroring her.

Cisco tentatively raised his hand, “Does this mean we can talk now?”

“Go ahead,” Felicity said in a deadpan, propping her chin on her hand.

Roy crossed his arms, his face incredulous, “What just happened? Are you pregnant or not?”

Thea, Sara, and Laurel looked at Felicity for permission and she nodded her head, giving them the go ahead.   
There was no point in trying to lie to them. No one would believe it especially their lies.

“Felicity is having a baby, but Oliver doesn’t know it yet. How? I have no idea,” Thea shrugged her shoulders in disbelief.

Felicity looked at John who didn’t look the least bit surprised, unlike the others, “Hey…Did you know?”

He laughed, “No, not exactly. I knew something was up, but I only began suspecting you were pregnant this afternoon when I brought you lunch, and you looked like you wanted to throw up.”

“Wait…so that whole conversation back there was your poor attempt at telling Oliver that you're pregnant?” Barry asked doubtfully.

Felicity shot him a glare, “My poor 5th attempt. I've been trying to tell him for weeks now and he either doesn’t seem to get the picture or someone interrupts.”

All of the girls cornered Cisco, Barry, and Roy with a scowl. If it hadn’t been for them, Oliver would already know and this whole disaster of a night would not have happened.

“Hey,” Cisco put his hands up in surrender, confused at the looks that were being tossed his way, “What did I do?”

Felicity huffed in annoyance, “At the coffee shop when you and Barry so rudely interrupted mine and Oliver’s conversation. I was literally a sentence away from telling him. I mean would it have hurt you if you had waited like, 5 minutes?”

“And you!” Felicity shifted her glare to Roy, “You had to go and blow up the cake that had the announcement on it with the prototype arrows I specifically told you not to touch.”

They shuffled their feet nervously and apparently, Digg thought this whole thing was funny because he was doing a very poor job at hiding his grin.

Sara sat down in a chair and rolled herself in front of Felicity, “Okay, I know you wanted to do this by yourself, but I think it’s time that we help you out. What do you say?”

Felicity smiled feebly and clasped Sara’s hand in thanks, “What took you so long to offer? I needed help a week ago.”

“Don’t worry. Oliver will out about this baby with-in the next 24 hours, I promise,” Laurel winked at her.

Thea whipped out her phone, “This is going to be the most epic pregnancy announcement ever! I’ve been working on some things you might like and that I think is super cute.”

Felicity knitted her eyebrows together, “Wait, you’ve already been planning this?”

Thea barely looked up from scrolling down her Pinterest boards, “Honey, I’ve been planning this since you told me because knowing how long it took for you and Oliver to get together, get engaged then get married, I knew you were going to need some help eventually.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is! Chapter 5! What did you think? Funny? Sad? Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and please encourage your friends to read it as well if you liked it. It means the world to me! If you have any ideas for the final chapter, I'm always open to suggestions!
> 
> Questions, comments, concerns? Leave a review!
> 
> Love, Freckles


	6. Life's Blessings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the help of her family, Felicity creates a plan. After all the anticipation and mishaps, Oliver is finally told that he's going to become a father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhhh!!!!! I can't believe it! I'm posting the last chapter AND the season premiere of Arrow aired last week! I did not see that ending coming and if you haven't watched it...What are you doing? Go watch it (it's on the CW app/website for free) then you will understand what I mean. 
> 
> Anyways, thank you so much for taking an interest and reviewing, it means so much! Please leave recommendations for future stories and please let me know what you thought of this last chapter.
> 
> This is definitely my longest chapter at 9311 words but I hope I did Oliver finding out justice after all the waiting!
> 
> Disclaimer: I still don't own Arrow.
> 
> Happy reading!

“Okay, please tell me that you guys have some good ideas,” Felicity shut the glass door of her conference room behind her and dropped down in the chair at the head of the table.

Thea, Sara, Laurel, Diggle, and Roy were seated around the oval table that usually held discussions about budgets and QI’s technical achievements but today, her family was gathered around to help her brainstorm the most epic pregnancy announcement in the history of pregnancy announcements.

It was going to be _flawless_ because there was no way anyone or anything was ruining this. She and Oliver both deserved this moment.

If Jerry, her assistant, thought that having a family meeting without Oliver and in one of Queen Incorporated’s conference rooms was a little weird, he didn’t mention it. Not even when Felicity said that he was, under no circumstances, to tell Oliver that they were here today. If he did, he would be fired.

Laurel pulled her computer from her briefcase, “I’ve been researching some ideas and I think they are all super cute but I’m not sure how practical they are for us. I think we should try to make it a little more personal.”

“I agree,” Thea nodded, pulling out a notebook and a pen, “I think we should incorporate arrows or green or something like that into this reveal. I think it would be a cute idea. What do you think, Felicity?”

Felicity slowly nodded. She had gotten farther in five minutes than she had in two weeks!

“I think that’s a really good idea. It would symbolize the legacy that this child is being born into and the legacy that Oliver will leave for our children. It’s perfect, now we just have to come up with a way to tie it in,” She tapped her fingertips on the glass table, “I also got a onesie that I think we should somehow use. I saw it when I got the other onesies I used for the girls and I just had to get it.”

Roy snapped his fingers, “Hey! I’ve got a friend who makes all kind of unique ways to announce things. I bet I could get him to do something really awesome that we could use. He’s a great guy and he’s got a couple kids of his own. He lives in the Glades so the business will do him good.”

Sara nodded eagerly, “Yeah, I know who he’s talking about. A real upstanding guy. I saw him make this personalized label to put on a wine bottle that I think we could use for the announcement and for the celebration afterward.”

“What about you Diggle? I mean, I know you found out about JJ during a gunfight but what did you like the most about finding out? Or how would your ‘perfect’ experience look like?” Felicity looked at him.

John crossed his muscular arms and leaned back with a fond smile on his face, “You’re right. I found out at less than perfect timing but honestly, I wouldn’t change it for anything because that announcement kind of summed up mine and Layla’s relationship, you know. It was just so ‘us’.”

His fond smile turned into a full out grin, “Maybe you should wait until one of you have been kidnapped by a psychotic criminal. I mean that has kind of been the theme of your relationship.”

Felicity shot him a look and pursed her lips as everyone chuckled, “Shut up.”

She got up and pulled over a clear dry-erase board, “Okay, I’ll start writing down some ideas and then we can see how to put it all together.”

Felicity wrote ‘onesie’ in purple then looked back at the full table then glanced out the glass walls to make sure no one was watching. She didn’t think anyone would buy the excuse ‘We’re going into business together and starting up our own version of ‘Babies-R-Us’’.

“Alright, someone give me some facts or an idea or something to jot down.”

Laurel looked up from her computer, “Babies at this time are about as big as a lime.”

Felicity wrote down ‘as big as limes’ and waited for someone else.

Sara grinned, “I guess since you vetoed my idea of hiring a biplane to carry a banner saying that you’re pregnant that that’s not an option?”

Felicity frowned, “No, it’s not. All of you already know, including Cisco and Barry and so does my favorite barista at Jitters which is a long story so that’s already eight people that I had planned on not telling before Oliver.” She pivoted towards Sara, “Surely, you can think up something better?”

“I’ll try,” She winked.

They all took turns shouting out random ideas and facts until they had about 20 different items on the board ranging from ‘belly paint’ to ‘shirt that says, ‘baby daddy’’ to ‘baby is now making pee’.

Some of the things that were listed Felicity had no idea how they were relevant and some of them, she was definitely not going to use, no matter how much Roy wanted to see Oliver’s face when he was handed a shirt that said, ‘baby daddy’.

But some of them were really, very good and she thought that they had the beginnings of a solid plan. Now, they just had to pull it off without any interruptions and they had less than seven hours to gather everything and decorate.

* * *

 

John pulled into the club’s empty parking lot and exited the Escapade. Oliver got out and they walked towards the door.

“So, I was thinking that we should go back to that warehouse and sweep through it again to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Then, we should probably look into that intel about that drug operation down near where that Merlyn Global warehouse used to be,” Oliver summarized to John as he filtered through emails on his phone.

Diggle smirked but stayed silent, ‘ _Good luck at achieving any of that tonight_.’

There were other plans in store for him. Plans that would soon be put into motion.

He stopped Oliver right outside the door, holding out his hand, “I need your phone.”

“What?” Oliver looked at John quizzically as the other man waited for him to surrender the device.

“And those files on the city budget along with anything else that might distract you,” He pointed to the manila folders that were under his arm.

Oliver hesitated, “What’s going on?”

Diggle sighed and rolled his eyes, “Come on, man. Just go with it. You’ll find out soon.”

Oliver reluctantly handed over his phone and the folders and watched as John walked over and opened the metal door, “Come on, Oliver. It’s not a trap or anything, don’t worry.”

They walked into the club together and Oliver was surprised to find that it looked nothing like the club it had been last night. The lights had been dimmed to a glow and there were candles placed around the room as well as strings around the room with different pictures of him and Felicity attached to them with clothespins.

There was a pathway to the door that led to the ‘flooded basement’ aka the bunker, made out of a mixture of glitter, confetti and fern limbs.

Oliver’s first thought was that he must have forgotten his and Felicity’s anniversary but that couldn’t be true because he distinctly remembered celebrating it a few months ago and he swore to himself that he wouldn’t be one of those husbands who forgot their anniversaries. Honestly, he didn’t understand how it was even possible to forget one of the most important days of your life.

But just in case, because if there was anything he had learned in his line of (nighttime) work was that anything was possible, he turned to Diggle who was watching him with an amused grin. Whatever it was, he was in on it.

“Please tell me I didn’t miss my anniversary. Did I?” Oliver asked somewhat desperately.

John laughed and shook his head much to Oliver’s relief, “No, no you didn’t miss your anniversary. Felicity would have your hide,” He clasped a hand on Oliver’s shoulder in reassurance, “Relax. Everything’s fine.”

Oliver nodded skeptically, and Digg pulled out what looked like ear-plugs then he handed them to a bewildered Oliver.

“You’re going to need these. Not right now but you will,” He winked, “Trust me. I know from experience.”

“What is happening?” Oliver asked, and John pointed to Laurel who he hadn’t noticed until now.

“I promise, everything will become clear soon but just work with us, man,” Oliver nodded doubtfully but went when Digg nudged him towards a waiting Laurel.

She waved at him, a grin on her face as she hid something behind her back, “Hey Oliver! How are you?”

He eyed her and tried to see what she had in her hands, “Very confused and slightly intrigued.”

“I’ve got something for you,” Laurel laughed and pulled out one of his tiny arrows that Felicity had designed for easy concealing in situations like undercover or in his boot, just in case.

It was wrapped in a shiny emerald green bow; the exact shade of his suit and the tip had been dulled.

Laurel suppressed her grin as he picked it up out of her hands. Dulling the tip had been her idea and Felicity wholeheartedly agreed. With the luck Laurel knew Felicity had been having, Oliver would have been clumsy for once in his life and would have tripped and stabbed himself which would have resulted in not ending up telling Oliver and a lot of worry that they could all do without.

“Are you going to tell me what this is for?” He asked as he examined the arrow.

She nodded glibly, “It’s for teaching.”

Oliver raised an eyebrow, “Teaching whom, may I ask?”

Laurel smirked knowingly, “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Really?” He frowned as Laurel pointed down the pathway to where Sara had seemingly appeared, beaming like this was the most fun she had had since scaring the crap out of him, Roy, Diggle, and Barry a year ago.

Laurel rolled her eyes when he looked back with a slightly terrified look in his eye. I mean this _was_ Sara, the international assassin, he was talking about.

“Go on, you Scaredy-cat,” Laurel gave him a push towards her sister.

Sara crossed her arms as he approached on his guard, “I’m not going to prank you, I promise. Or kill you. I don’t think Felicity would like that very much. _She_ would probably end up killing _me_.”

Oliver silently agreed with her. Felicity could be really scary when she wanted to be. He had unfortunately been on the receiving end of that wrath more times than he cared to admit.

Although, speaking of Felicity, he wondered where she was at. Surely, she was in on whatever the heck was going on around here. Come to think of it, a lot of strange things had been happening around here recently.

“So, I suppose you’re not going to tell me what’s going on?” He asked hopefully.

Sara shook her head, “Nope,” popping the ‘P’.

She reached into her black leather jacket and took out what looked like a lime.

Oliver pointed at it disbelievingly, “Is that a lime?”

“It sure is,” Sara nodded enthusiastically and he determined she was enjoying this way too much. She grabbed his hand and gave him the lime.

“Now, whatever you do, don’t drop it,” She ordered pointing a finger at him.

Oliver looked around cautiously, “What happens if I drop it?”

She looked at him with a serious but thoughtful expression, “Uh, probably a lot of freaking out and odds are, a hospital trip.”

“This isn’t a grenade or anything, is it?” Oliver looked at the lime nervously and more than a little confused.

Sara shook her head, “It’s just a regular old lime.”

“Then why would a hospital trip be-” He was cut off by Sara steering him to where Roy and Thea had materialized next to the bunker door.

“Off you go! Have fun,” She sent him off with a wave and an all too satisfied grin.

Sara covered her chuckle with her hand as she watched Oliver approach, Thea and Roy, looking more confused than she had ever seen him. This might be the greatest thing she had ever been a part of and that was saying something. She could not wait to tell the kid about this in the future. What a story!

“Are you sure that I haven’t missed any sort of anniversary? Like the first time Felicity and I kissed or the night I proposed?” Oliver approached his sister and Roy.

He was fairly positive it wasn’t any of those because he knew when those things had occurred and today wasn’t even near those dates. Maybe it was like the first time he had given her a foot rub or maybe it was when he gave Felicity that bullet-ridden laptop all those years ago. That would be something Felicity might celebrate, right?

He racked his brain, trying to remember when that had been.

Thea looked at him with a bemused expression, “No, it isn’t any sort of anniversary. You can stop freaking out.”

“Not yet, anyways,” Roy interjected happily.

Thea stepped forward and gave him a hug. He was slightly surprised, but he returned it wholeheartedly, “Seriously, what’s going on. Where’s Felicity?”

Neither of them answered him, they just exchanged knowing glances which only served to infuriate him even more.

“You’ll see her soon, I promise,” Thea smiled and handed him a card.

He started to open it, “What’s this for?”

Roy and Thea put their hands out to stop him from taking out the card, “Uh-uh, not yet. Not till you open your present.”

Oliver looked at them inquiringly, “It’s not my birthday, is it?”

Thea rolled her eyes, “No, you’re just going to have to wait and see,” She put her hands on her hips, “Now, you have to promise me that you won’t open the card till you open the present.”

He nodded but apparently that wasn’t enough for Thea. She needed verbal confirmation.

“You _promise_?” She prompted sternly.

Oliver gulped, “I promise. I promise.”

She nodded, satisfied and Roy handed him a champagne glass, “Here, you’ll need this.”

Oliver took it, adding it to the odd assortment of things he had acquired on the journey from the parking lot to the bunker door, “Am I drinking alone.”

Roy shook his head, “Felicity will be there.”

“Then, where’s her glass? Or more specifically, where is she?” Oliver asked.

At this point, he kind of wanted to know how his wife factored into all of this. Actually, he mainly just wanted to know what was going on.

Roy grinned and replied casually, “She can’t have one.”

Oliver raised his eyebrows and was about to ask why when Thea entered the password into the hidden keypad, entered her fingerprint and opened the door.

“Alrighty, down you go,” Thea held open the door as Roy urged him through the doorway. The door swung shut with a bang.

The bunker was decorated in the same manner as the club and he could faintly hear a popular love song playing. He descended the stairs with caution just in case all of his friends had been impersonated by their evil doppelgängers and they were planning to blow him up although there was a very slim chance of that actually happening.

“Felicity,” Oliver called out as he crept down the stairs.

There was no answer and he frowned. Roy said that he would see her soon and implied that there would be drinking but Felicity didn’t want too? He didn’t know, he was as confused as ever but hopefully, that was going to put to an end very soon.

“Felicity?” He tried again but there was still no answer.

As he entered the Bunker he looked around. There were pictures from his and Felicity’s wedding and pictures of them with their friends. If this wasn’t some sort of celebration of an anniversary, then he was at a loss.

Oliver spied a dark wooden box tied in an emerald green bow matching the one that was tied to the tiny arrow he was given by Laurel. He figured this must be the present Thea was talking about. It was sitting directly in front of Felicity’s main computer, the soft glow giving it a magical feel as well as the spotlight someone, probably Felicity, had rigged to shine down on the box.

“Am I supposed open this now?” He asked into the air, hoping to get a response but none came.

Oliver shrugged and put down the random stuff that he had been given next to the box. He was actually pretty curious to see what was inside after everyone had gone to so much trouble.

He slowly undid the bow and looked for the latch to open the lid then, he opened it. At first, he wasn’t sure what he was seeing. It looked like a white t-shirt.

Biting his lip, he reached inside the box and took it out only to find it to be one of those things a baby wears? Perplexed, he turned it around and read the words, ‘Hi Daddy, Mommy says you’re her hero. I’m sure that you will be mine too.’

He dropped it like it had burned him as he sucked in a deep breath. There was no way. She couldn’t be pregnant, could she? Felicity was on the pill. There was no way, but then… Why was there a baby’s outfit that said what it said?

Oliver swallowed hard and looked in the box, pulling out some pink and blue booties. He turned them in his hands, trying to believe what this meant.

His mind started flying through the past couple of weeks and missing pieces were being filled in. The way Felicity had been acting, her sudden diversion from coffee, the way her waist had thickened over the past week and her fuller chest, her off-the-wall mood swings that he had just chalked up to being related to her period. It all made sense with what he was seeing.

With shaking hands, he reached into the wooden box and pulled out the last items. He sniffed as tears started to gather in his eyes at what he was seeing.

It was two different pregnancy tests and they were both positive. One with a plus sign and the other, simply the word ‘pregnant’. Taped onto the tests were what looked like ultrasound pictures.

Oliver carefully pulled them off. One was zoomed out, but he could make out it was a baby although, the circle around it with the words ‘Baby Queen’ written to the side confirmed it.

‘Baby Queen’… He could hardly believe the words, but the proof was staring him in the face. A baby. Part him, part Felicity and it was residing in Felicity’s womb right now.

He collapsed into Felicity’s chair, almost missing it but he didn’t care as the tears that had gathered in his eyes started streaming down his face.

His eyes roamed over the face he had only just been acquainted with and tried to make out bits of him and Felicity. How long had she known and was it a boy or a girl? And did everyone know but him?

Oliver ran his hand over his mouth as he gripped the picture. He didn’t know anything about babies or really, kids in general, but he had started yearning for a family when he saw Diggle with JJ and that want had increased as his love for Felicity grew.

But he always told himself that he could never have a family because of the danger he was always in and the life he had led until a few years after he had returned from the island. He didn’t deserve the joy of being some one’s father. He didn’t think it was possible, but it was happening, and he couldn’t seem to contain the excitement that was filling him as the shock was wearing off.

He didn’t even know if this was what Felicity wanted. They had only ever talked about kids in hypothetical terms, but she always seemed happy at the prospect of becoming a mother one day. He saw the fond look she had when they kept JJ, or she saw a child playing.

Felicity! Where was she?! He had to see her, to kiss her, to talk to her and get verbal confirmation that this wasn’t some kind of elaborate prank.

Oliver looked around the softly lit bunker but didn’t see her. His gaze fell on the white envelope that Thea had given him and reached for it, tearing it open.

He pulled out the card and on the front, it had the words, ‘What is a Dad?’ written in black. On the inside, it had, ‘You. You is a Dad.’

The word ‘Dad’ simultaneously scared and filled him with wonder. He felt overwhelming love for this little person he had only known existed for five minutes and for his beautiful wife, who was right now giving life to their son or daughter.

Down below the words was a note scrawled in Felicity’s familiar handwriting.

 _To my_ _dearest husband,_

_By now I suppose you realize what’s being told to you with various different items. I promise you, this isn’t any sort of prank, it’s real and Congratulations are in order because you are now a father-to-be. Trust me, it was a surprise for me too, but I am so looking forward to raising a child with your eyes and my hair (the real color, not blonde…I don’t think it works that way)._

_A son with your heart and desire to help people or a daughter with your strength and who knows her daddy’s her hero. You’re going to be the best father in the world and we will be able to conquer any obstacles that come our way together, even if it’s dangerous. I know you will protect our growing family with everything you have and that will always be enough. This baby will be the most protected baby in probably the whole world._

_On your way here, you gathered some things and they each mean something:_

_The ear-plugs Digg gave you are for all the sleepless nights. The ones that I will get up to tend to a squalling baby while you use the said ear-plugs and attempt to sleep so that you can get up in the morning and be the mayor, I, on the other hand, will be drinking as much caffeine as possible to get through my day at the office but that’s okay because I’m going to be a mom and that’s my job. But never fear! You get the weekends all to yourself, I promise!_

_The next item on the list that Laurel gave you, is one of those super handy concealable arrows for emergencies. It was dulled down quite a bit and I doubt those are even the arrows you’ll use but it’s for when he or she gets old enough for you to deem them ready to use a bow and arrow. I know you’re probably hesitant about this idea because of safety issues among other things but I know you and when our child begs for you to teach them, you will, and it will become a special thing between a child and his father. It also represents our legacy, the one that you’re leaving for our son or daughter and the symbol of hope that the Green Arrow is._

_By Sara, you were given a lime. Yeah, this one was a little odd but guess what! That’s the size of our baby right now, resting in my uterus. She (or he) has fingerprints now and her veins and organs are actually visible through her thin skin, which is amazing. I know a lot but I’m learning things I didn’t even know there was to know. Pregnancy is whole set of different information but don’t worry, we’ll learn together. Thea’s gift, you’re holding in your hands and Roy’s was a champagne glass to help me celebrate this joyous, although unexpected, occasion. He only gave you one because well…It’s not good for the baby and neither is caffeine which is very unfortunate but for the health of our baby, it’s so worth it._

_The gift I gave you was the box you just opened. An ultrasound picture of the cutest little face I’ve ever seen and that’s including yours (sorry?). A onesie that is very accurate because you’ve always been my hero and you’ll be our baby’s hero when he or she comes. Booties, because they were adorable. And two of the five positive pregnancy tests I took. Yes, five. I was freaking out and I wanted to make sure I hadn’t gotten a faulty one or something but as you can see I got five accurate ones._

_Your last gift is…well, just turn around._

Oliver whipped around so fast that Felicity was worried he might have given himself whiplash. She had hidden in the shadows, watching Oliver’s facial expressions as best she could ever since he got down here. Waiting for him alone in the semi-darkness had felt like an eternity especially since the butterflies in her stomach felt more like elephants.

When he bounded down the metal steps, her heart was in her stomach and she bit her lip anxiously as he preceded to open the wooden box that held the secret that she had been trying to tell him for a few weeks now.

She watched as he started crying and she almost went to him then but decided against it, so he could have this moment to let it all sink in. She almost went to him again when he was obviously looking around for her, but she waited. Then he started to read the card and she crept out of her hiding place, a wine bottle in hand, and waited for him to turn around.

“Felicity…?” Oliver breathed and looked at her in shock and awe, “We’re having a baby?”

She smiled fondly, tilting her head to the side and gave a nod, “We’re having a baby.”

Felicity waited until Oliver took a few short steps and framed her face with his warm hands, “I can’t believe it. I’m not even sure what to say.”

She reached up and swiped some of his tears away with her thumb, “You’re not disappointed or mad, are you?”

Oliver’s bright blue eyes snapped open with an intensity Felicity had never seen before, “Why would you ever think that? I’m beyond happy and I would never be disappointed or mad that you’re carrying my child. Ever. It makes me love you even more which I didn’t think was possible,” He tentatively put a hand on her stomach, “And I already love this baby with everything I have in me.”

Felicity sniffed as tears gathered in her eyes at his words. That had been one of her main fears. That he would be upset that she was pregnant. She knew it was silly, but the fear had still been there.

He looked alarmed and searched her tear-filled eyes, rubbing the drops away with his thumbs, “Hey, Hey. What’s wrong? What’s the matter? Why are you crying? Felicity, honey…”

She tried to answer him and shook her head as her tears kept coming. Honestly, being pregnant made her cry at everything and when she started, it was hard to stop.

“I’m just happy and relieved that you’re happy,” Felicity sniffed and looked into Oliver’s concerned eyes, “I was so afraid that maybe you wouldn’t want the baby because of all the danger and risks it might have because of the Green Arrow or if your enemies found out you had a child…You were so against us being together because of that reason and…”

Oliver tilted her head up and tenderly kissed her tear-tracks, “I know, I know, and I was stupid for doing it, but I was so afraid of you getting hurt that I just couldn’t function with the idea that you might be in danger because of me. Thank God, you made me see reason because even with the danger, it’s worth it and we figured it out together. And we’ll do the same with this baby. I will do whatever’s necessary to keep our family safe.”

He gave her a sure, lasting kiss on her forehead, “This I promise you.”

“I’m sorry,” Felicity laughed through her tears as she reached up to wipe them away, “Being pregnant makes me a lot more emotional than normal. I cry all the time now.”

Oliver grinned as he wrapped his arms loosely around her waist, “So, you have to tell me everything.”

“Well, first, I have to give you your last present. To celebrate with our friends who are probably dying to know what’s happening,” She smiled and reached down to grab the wine bottle that she had set down before she accidentally dropped it.

He didn’t say anything, and Felicity noticed his smile had dimmed, “What’s wrong?”

“So, I’m the last to know, huh?” Oliver tried to joke but Felicity heard the hurt in his voice.

She put the wine bottle back down by her feet. She had been afraid of this, but it wasn’t her fault that he had made this so difficult. Because she tried, she really did! It wasn’t her fault that everyone was smart and picked up on it. And how was she supposed to know that the comms would go out right at that second? Granted, that wasn’t her best idea, but she blamed that one on her hormones.

Felicity sighed and looked at him with as much love as possible, “Oh, Oliver. My darling husband.”

She pulled him close to her and he looked into her eyes, “I rushed to tell you as soon as I found out, but it did not go to plan. And then there were a few more mishaps and I didn’t tell anyone but your sister because I needed her help with another idea which blew up, literally. Then everyone else found out under their own power.”

Realization dawned on Oliver’s face, “Don’t tell me that strange visit you made to the office a few weeks ago…”

He trailed off as she nodded, “Oh yeah, that was my first attempt. I just couldn’t get it out and then Katy came in,” Felicity scrunched up her nose, “And then your lunch came and I almost threw-up. That’s another side effect of being pregnant. Morning sickness. Although, I don’t know why they call it morning sickness; It’s more like morning, noon, and night sickness.”

His eyelids fluttered closed in disgusted disbelief, “I’m such an idiot. That bottle, it wasn’t JJ’s was it? You were trying to tell me and that whole discussion on the comms last night…” Felicity bit her lip.

Well, at least he had paid attention. He just hadn’t connected the dots.

“I actually ended up telling you, but your comms fritzed out like two seconds before and I hadn’t realized it. That’s how everyone else found out.”

Oliver looked devastated like someone had run over his puppy as he ran a hand down his face, “Seriously?! Of all times for us to have a technical issue.”

Felicity nodded, a wry grin covering her face, “That’s what I thought too, so everyone pitched in to help me pull this off. I hope you liked it.”

“I loved it. I would have loved it even if you had told me in some boring, generic way but this I will be able to tell our son or daughter and it made it very special and for that, I thank you.”

He gathered her up in his arms and kissed her deeply, “I love you and I love our baby.”

“I guess you’ve gone to the doctor? Do you know when we should expect this little one?” Oliver pulled back and tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear.

“I went yesterday actually. I was trying to wait until I told you, but it was getting later and later, and I needed to make sure everything was okay, which it is. As for when the baby’s due,” Felicity bent down and handed him her last gift, a bottle of wine with a sticker on the front that said, ‘The best Husbands get promoted to Daddy. Baby Queen, Arriving November 4th.'

Oliver took it. He smiled when he read the label then held up the wine, “Lafite Rothschild's 1982?”

Felicity smiled and rocked on her heels, “I thought it was appropriate.”

He hummed and glanced over the bottle again, “November 4th? That’s kind of soon, right? That would make you three months pregnant.”

Oliver looked a little shocked and Felicity couldn’t blame him. She hadn’t realized she was that far along either and had been slightly overwhelmed at the words, ‘You’re almost out of your first trimester’.

“Yeah, I have a week left in my first trimester. Which means I got pregnant in February, but I didn’t realize all of my symptoms were pregnancy symptoms until I wanted to throw up at the smell of coffee and I couldn’t remember the last time I had had a period. That’s when I took a test. Several tests, actually.”

Felicity put her hands on Oliver’s chest, “I want to tell you everything and there’s a lot but, I think we should probably tell our friends that you finally know about the baby. They’re probably ready to burst down the door by now.”

As if on cue, they heard a slight creaking sound of the bunker door trying to be opened subtly. They both looked up and saw Thea, Sara and Laurel’s alarmed faces, presumably at being caught, peeking through the crack in the door.

Oliver laughed as they quickly disappeared, letting the door start to swing shut, “You can come out now.”

Sara must have caught the door because she pushed it back open quickly, “She told you?!”

Felicity put her hands on her hips, “Yes, I told him. What did you think I was doing in here? Talking to him about the benefits of solar energy?”

“Who knows? It’s taken you this long to tell him, so it wouldn’t surprise me if something prevented you from telling him now,” She shrugged and stuck her head out the door to yell, “She did it! Nothing stood in her way.”

A faint ‘Finally’ was heard, and Felicity rolled her eyes in exasperation.

Sara turned the lights on more, turning the bunker back into well, the bunker and less of ‘Glowing romantic restaurant’.

Now that Oliver could see more of the room and wasn’t focusing solely on the fact that his wife was having a baby, he saw that it was decorated with pictures of him with his parents when he was younger and of Felicity with her mom. There were present-day pictures, as well. Their wedding pictures, photos with their best friends, including team flash, who were basically their family.

The glass table that they used for pretty much anything from making explosive devices to eating to playing card games when they were waiting on a search, was set up for what looked like a party.

Sara said something to the others who were out in the club portion of the building (Thea had closed it for tonight) and then ran down the stairs with another bottle of wine, “It’s time to party! Don’t worry Felicity, we got you some sparkling water, so you don’t feel left out.”

Roy and Digg followed with grins, approaching Oliver to slap him on the back, “Congrats Man! Welcome to fatherhood. If you need any tips, I’m your guy.”

Oliver wrapped his arms around John, giving him one of those macho man hugs, “Thanks. This kid is really lucky to have an uncle like you.”

The other man nodded, swiping his hand across his eyes to try and cover up the tears that had gathered.

Felicity smirked, _I_ _see you John Diggle, you big softy_.

Roy stuck his hand out and pulled Oliver into another macho man hug, “I’m so happy for you guys. I can not wait to spoil the kid. He’s like baby arrow.”

Felicity raised an eyebrow, “First of all, no one will be spoiling anyone and secondly, how do you know it's going to be a boy? It could be a girl.”

“Well, I’m voting for boy,” Roy said assuredly.

Thea and Laurel came down the stairs each with a pastel cakebox in their hands.Thea pinned Roy with a look as they made their way to the table, “I swear…You’d better not blow this one up.”

Laurel sat down the box, opening it to reveal white cupcakes with a sparkly ‘Baby’ topper in the middle. She reached in to carefully move them around, “Roy, if you blow these up I will personally see to it that your life will be a living hell for the next few weeks. You will not mess this up. Not now. Not when everything’s been so perfect.”

Oliver gave Felicity a look, “What do they mean by ‘you better not blow this one up?’”

She waved him off, going to help the girls set up the snacks that they had prepared for their celebration, “I’ll tell you about it later.”

Oliver watched Felicity as she started rearranging things on the table, laughing at something one of the other girls said.She was glowing, and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t realized it before.

She exuded radiance, her smile was brighter, even the way she carried herself had shifted. Now that he knew, there was no denying that she looked pregnant and not only in the subtle physical changes but in her countenance and behavior.

His undying love had grown for her tenfold and he thought he had already maxed out on his love for her. He didn’t even know it was _possible_ to love someone this much.

He watched as she beamed when she talked to Thea, Laurel and Sara, her best friends and when she playfully scowled at John and Roy when they tried to steal a cupcake as they interacted with each other with happy, carefree smiles.

Every time he saw his family and friends so full of life, he was reminded why he did what he did and why he risked his life every single night. Oliver smiled with a new sense of purpose. Felicity had gifted him another reason to fight tonight. His baby.

* * *

 

“I’m so glad you finally know,” Felicity said with a content sigh as she climbed onto their comfy California King mattress, moving the comforter and pillows to snuggle up next to Oliver.

He tucked some of her hair behind her ear and stared into her beautiful sparkling eyes, “You’re beautiful. You know that, right?”

She giggled, “I won’t be in a few months. I’ll be as big as a house.”

“I can’t wait,” Oliver hummed into her ear, giving her nips on her neck.

“So, what do you think about it?” Felicity put a hand on his bare chest and feebly attempted to push him away from kissing her.

He complied and rolled on his side, gathering her into her arms to lean over her, “I think that you are going to be an amazing mother and I can’t wait to meet him or her and that we have a lot to do between now and Nov. 4th.”

“Like buy a bunch of stuff that I probably didn’t even know existed. Figure out where the nursery will be, buy furniture for said nursery then decorate the nursery. We’ll need to buy clothes and bottles and blankets, and those swing things and we need to pick out a name, baby proof the manor and the bunker…” Felicity was overwhelmed just by listing all the things she had thought of, but she was sure there were countless other things she wasn’t thinking of.

There was definitely a lot of baby researching in her future.

Oliver propped himself up on his elbow, right next to her head, “We’ll figure it out together, I promise, and our friends will be more than willing to help especially Sara, Thea, and Laurel.”

Felicity’s lip quirked up, “Oh yeah. There’re already planning a baby shower and a gender reveal and I’m pretty sure I heard Laurel say something about an idea for the nursery.”

He laughed, his eyes sparkling, “Sounds like them. Do you know when we get to find out if it’s a boy or a girl?”

“Anywhere from 16 to 20 weeks which is not that far away, come to think of it,” Felicity snuggled back against Oliver’s broad chest and he wrapped a strong arm protectively around her mid-section, “What do you want?”

“I don’t care as long as he or she is healthy, but I think it would be kind of nice to have a little girl with curls and your brain. Someone who I can read fairy tales too and take to the zoo.”

She could hear the wistfulness in his voice and she could imagine a little girl whose whole world revolved around her daddy’s and vice versa. Felicity got the sense that he was thinking about his own parents and what he had wished from them but sadly never got.

She could relate. Her mom had always been at work to provide her with nice things, but she really just wanted her mom to spend time with her. Not that her mom had been a bad mother, but she hadn’t been very attentive. However, Felicity could never describe in words how grateful she was for her hard-working mom who went without, so she could have.

“I don’t think I’ll be a very good dad,” Oliver’s sad words surprised her, and she rolled over as fast as possible.

“What on _earth_ makes you think!?” She asked fiercely, the look on his face breaking her heart.

Oliver shrugged and looked down, “I didn’t have the greatest role models.”

“Oliver Queen, you look at me,” Felicity grabbed his chin gently and made him look her in the eyes, “You are going to be the best father in the world and I’m not just saying that. I might be a little biased, okay a lot biased but I truly believe that. I know you didn’t have the best childhood or the most attentive parents who tried to meet your needs and listen to what you wanted but that doesn’t change the fact that they didn’t love you. Your parents loved you, even if they didn’t show it in the most normal ways.”

She placed her hands on his chest, “I know you’re going to be a great dad because when you decide to let someone in, you love them with your whole heart. You’ve learned from your parents’ mistakes and I know you won’t make the same ones. I’ve seen the way you act around JJ, the way you listen just as attentively about his Tonka Truck as you would listening to one of DAs about an important issue. And most importantly, you love this baby and you have the biggest heart of anyone I know, and you love me and we’re going to figure this out together.”

Felicity kissed him, “I know just like you knew I would be an amazing mother and I didn’t have the greatest examples either but did you doubt that I would fail in my role as ‘mom’?”

Oliver shook his head sharply, “Never! I’ve always thought you would make a great mother.”

“See,” She smiled fondly at him, “I know we’ll be fine just like I know that you’ll give me the same speech I’m giving you when I start to question my prowess as a mother.”

He looked at her with intense love in his eyes, “I love you so much, Felicity Queen and,” His lips slowly curled up in a grin before he simultaneously pushed her up and moved himself down to where his lips found a strip of bare skin right below her belly button, “I love you too Baby Queen. I’m your daddy and I can’t wait till I meet you and did you know that your mommy is amazing and she’s super smart? Like beyond genius levels and we are so lucky to have her.”

Felicity laughed as his scruff tickled her belly, “See, this is exactly what I mean. You are going to be a great father,” She ran her hands through his hair, “So, would you like to know how everyone found out before you. It’s actually kind of funny now that I look back on it and I know that you’ve been told although let me tell you, it was not funny at the time. It was very frustrating.”

Oliver moved back up to her level and they faced each other, both laying on their sides, “Yes, I’m very curious to know. Does it have anything to do with Roy blowing up a cake?”

She nodded, laughingly, “Yeah, he kind of ruined my second attempt at telling you. After that whole debacle at your office, I decided I would think up something cute, so I enlisted Thea to help. She was the only one I had intended to tell before telling you although not at first. I decided I needed help.”

“How’d you tell her,” Oliver asked.

“Well,” Felicity drew out, “I hacked Amazon and got a cute little onesie that said something like, ‘You’re my favorite aunt’ and I got a few other things too that I’ll get her to show you. Then there was a lot of screaming, hugging and crying. Anyways, she procured a cake that said, ‘Congrats on your new addition’ and we had planned to let you open the cake box in the bunker with me there so afterward we could all celebrate.”

She sighed. Just thinking about it made her realize all the flaws in this plan. Oliver waited for her to go on,

“Our first mistake was leaving the cake in the bunker while we went to eat. Thea convinced me that no one would be going down to the bunker until we got, well,” Felicity rolled her eyes, “Of course someone would.”

He looked at her in anticipation, “Who was it, Digg?”

“I wish,” Felicity gave Oliver a look, “It was Roy. Remember when he blew up the lair? The cake was in the crossfire.”

His lips twitched up and Felicity could tell that he thought this was hilarious. She slapped him on the arm, “It’s not funny. It cost me a perfectly good cake and I spent five hours that I did not have wiring and putting security on the new monitor we had to get.”

Oliver grinned, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Okay, so obviously that didn’t work. What happened next? Last night?”

Felicity coughed in disbelief, “Far from it. The next thing that happened was my great idea of a scavenger hunt. That’s why there was a bottle in the drawer. By the way, a baby bottle is different than a sippy cup. It wasn’t JJ’s, it was my way of telling you we were having a baby.”

“I’m so sorry, Felicity. I had no idea,” Now he looked apologetic and she smiled fondly.

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. That idea was a little far-fetched anyways.”

Oliver hesitated, “Still. Were there other things around the house?”

She hummed and rolled onto her back, “Yeah, but after three days of you not finding anything, I collected everything, or at least I think I did, pregnancy brain is a real thing, however, before I did that, Sara and Laurel found like, everything in the living room when we came here when I forgot those files.”

“Then what happened? Is there more?” He squirmed around, pulling the covers up over them.

She huffed, “Unfortunately, yes. At Jitters.”

“Oh no,” Oliver gave her a dismayed look, “Don’t tell me when Cisco and Barry…”

Felicity shot him a grimace, “Oh yeah. I was so close, and they just had the worst timing.”

He closed his eyes in incredulity, “That whole conversation about you not having coffee makes so much sense now. You were trying to get me to catch onto the no caffeine thing, weren’t you?”

“Mmhmm,” Her lips quirked up. Of course, now he would be having the epiphany now after he knew.

“Then last night happened and everyone who didn’t know knew. Although, Diggle had figured it out a couple days ago.”

Oliver looked at her, “I am so sorry, honey,” He flopped on his back with his arms above his head, “I’m such an idiot.”

Felicity rolled back on her side, curling up to look at him, “It’s alright. I’m the one who’s sorry. I should have come up with this plan in the beginning. At this point, I’m just glad you know.”

They laid in silence for a few minutes, each thinking about what had transpired that evening and all they needed to get done before the baby arrived.

“Who else do we need to tell,” Oliver interrupted the quietness.

Felicity shifted, trying to think of people, “Well, my mom. I’m sure she’ll be ecstatic about this whole thing. The rest of team Flash unless Barry and Cisco already spilled the beans when they got home this morning. Based on their track record, I would be surprised if they hadn’t blurted it out or at least made Iris and Caitlin suspicious although they haven’t called me yet, so that’s a good sign. Then I guess once I can’t hide my baby bump anymore we’ll need to tell the public.”

She continued ranting about how much fun that would be (note the sarcasm) and how they would tell the people who miraculously didn’t manage to find out when she realized Oliver hadn’t been paying attention nor had he said anything.

“Oliver, are you even listening?” She stretched her neck up to look at him.

He glanced down at her, “I’m sorry, what?”

Felicity frowned, it wasn’t like him to be so absorbed that he didn’t even know what she was talking about, “What’s on your mind?”

Oliver sighed, running a hand over her hair, “I’m sorry, it’s just, I wonder what my parents and Tommy would think. To tell them that I’m married to one of the most successful CEO’s of an International Corporation in the world, a genius who saves lives every night, including mine and is still chipper and ready to go to work in the morning. My wife, who’s carrying my first child.”

He shook his head, “They would never believe it. If I hadn’t gotten stranded on that island then I would still be sleeping around and have no money because I blew it all on expensive things I didn’t need and based on my track record, that’s what everyone thought was going to happen. In a way, that island was a blessing in disguise without it, I would have never met you or had a purpose in life.”

“Oh Oliver,” Felicity sighed and scooted into his embrace, “I love you so much. Tommy and your parents, they would be so proud of you and Thea. They wouldn’t even be able to put into words how much.”

He smiled wistfully as he tightened his hold on Felicity, “I just imagine telling them sometimes. What it would be like and now getting to tell them that they’re going to be grandparents and tell Tommy he’s gonna be an uncle. I’m just so sad that they’ll never get that. That I’ll never be able to tell them.”

Felicity stayed silent and settled her head over Oliver’s strong beating heart.

“Oliver,” She hesitated, “Maybe we can tell them.”

* * *

 

It was a brisk, foggy morning as spring still latched on not yet turning summer weather. Oliver pushed open the squeaky black wrought-iron gate and led her onto the stepping stone walkway. He wrapped an arm around her and she tightened the hold she had on his hand as they carefully made their way down the old pathway.

They stopped in front of two impressive looking gravestones. Oliver crouched down in front of them and dusted off the debris that had collected since the last time someone had visited while Felicity stood back to give him a minute.

He sniffed, “Hey mom. Hey dad. I know I haven’t come to see you in a while, but it’s been busy between being the mayor and running around as the Green Arrow. I know that’s no excuse, but I hope you understand. Anyways, there’s a special reason for visiting this early in the morning and I just found out myself last night. Felicity and I are going to have a baby. Isn’t that wonderful? You’re going to be Grandparents and don’t worry, we’ll bring our children to visit and we’ll tell them all sorts of stories about you.”

Felicity zoned out as Oliver continued to speak to his parents’ graves. She thought it was kind of ironic how full of life she was in the midst of all this death.

There was a new life, a new beginning, resting in her womb right at this moment. He or she is at the very beginning of this journey through life but surrounding her are people who have spent theirs and they have no more time to live. It was sad and yet, it was a bittersweet reminder that life goes on, even after you die. People were dying and being born all over the world all the time.

She smoothed out her bright blue dress, over the tiny, tiny budge that only she and Oliver actually noticed and tightened her beige coat around her.

Oliver stood up and walked past a few gravestones, stopping in front of one close by and crouching down, “Hey Tommy. I miss you. A lot. Every day I wonder what you would be doing. If maybe you and Laurel would be married or if you would have your own company or I don’t know, maybe even be a doctor. Guess what? I’m going to be a father. I know right. Party boy Queen is the mayor, married to the love of his life, saves the city at night and is getting ready to have a baby. Trust me, I can’t believe it any more than you can. You’d love Felicity. I only wished you and she had gotten to know each other but then you might have fallen for her and well, I don’t think I would have liked that very much.”

He quieted and hung his head, messing with a blade of grass, “I wish a lot of things but mostly I wished you hadn’t died.”

Felicity wiped a tear away. She knew that Oliver would never get over Tommy’s death or his parents for that matter. More than ever she wished that she had known Tommy Merlyn better than she did which was basically saying hi when he was around Oliver. She wondered if he would approve of her as Oliver’s wife.

Oliver approached her, and she held out her arms, ready to embrace him with all the love she could muster.

All of the sadness, all of the pain, it was all worth it because now they had a tiny little person who would be so full of hope and lightness to be a beacon in this dark, dark world they lived in so others could live a happy life. Their hearts were bursting with love for this little Queen who would be, in a few short months, taking the world by storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My last chapter! I'm kind of sad now. I do have some special things coming your way so please stay tuned! I'm adding a bonus 'Behind-the-scenes' chapter onto this story. It was originally in this chapter but I took it out because of length but I still like it. I will be updating it within a few days.
> 
> The second thing is something that I'm posting as a separate story but it's a companion to this one. I'm calling it a 'deleted scene'. I took it out of one of the chapters because I didn't like how it flowed. So please be on the lookout for that!
> 
> Please, please leave recommendations for other stories. Should I write a little pregnancy/baby journey type story or should I write one when they got married or before or maybe even after the baby is a child. Please give me your thoughts because I want to continue writing Olicity!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Questions, comments, concerns? Leave me a review!
> 
> Love Freckles

**Author's Note:**

> So there it was. My first attempt at writing a Green Arrow story. There are going to be five chapters after this one as soon as I can write them. I will tell you right now that I'm not super great at updating in a timely matter but I'm going to try to change that (knock on wood).
> 
> I hope you enjoyed Felicity's first of many attempts at telling Oliver she was pregnant. Please leave me a review to tell me what you liked and disliked about my writing style and things that I can work on. When I was writing this story I was trying to capture Felicity's rambling humor but I'm not sure if I totally succeeded. Sometimes it felt like it did and sometimes it just sounded weird. I did try run-on non-sensical sentences on purpose to try and imitate Felicity's thinking process. Let me know how you think it worked out!
> 
> I also borrowed the 'What time is it' excuse from I Love Lucy's episode about Lucy finding out she's pregnant. Without fail, I always use that episode when writing a pregnancy story it seems.
> 
> Thanks so much for taking the time to give it a read!  
> Questions, comments, concerns? Leave a review! They make my day!
> 
> Love, Freckles


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